Nightly News for November 7th

 What.a.day. I want to thank you all for your patience and work today. As I have shared, I get anxious anytime I am not in the building and find it hard to focus. Today, I was thankful the training was just down Division and I could get back to the building quickly.

The district was very responsive and sent someone from Security Services since Herk was out. The Portland Police stationed a sergeant in the front lot. The police and Security Services communicated with me several times. Shannon was able to get messaging out to parents very quickly and the district followed up with more information later. It was even translated fairly quickly. That being said, I felt we were secure and students and staff were safe in the building. I appreciate you all remaining calm. 

The fire alarm was not a pull. A sensor in the cafeteria was triggered. We are not sure of the why, but we do know it was not a student pulling it. In those situations we have the ability to identify the location of the sensor but have to wait until we get the all clear from the fire department. I know it was cold, but the rain held off. The good news is both of the drills we had to do this month are now complete. Our lockout drill was scheduled for November 15th and the surprise fire drill was scheduled for this Wednesday. Thankfully, the lockout had been lifted when the fire alarm went off. The question is what if we were still in a lockout and the drill went off?

This is a good way to review those what ifs. If this were the case it would be imperative for staff to remain alert. In this situation we most likely would have identified the area that was triggered, gotten a visual on it (i.e are there flames?) and then had all students/staff head to the gym complex until we were be advised by the fire department, police and/or Security Services. Again, these decisions would have to be made in the moment with the best information we had at the time. I will bring this up to some folks at the district level, but please know today has given us food for thought. 

• I made a mistake in yesterday's Weekly Forecast. There is no school on Friday so K-5 report cards need to be sent home on Thursday. 

• Tomorrow's staff meetings are cadres. Please let me know if you are not aware of where you are supposed to be. 

• I will be in a cohort meeting and SUN interviews (yippee) from 9:30-11:30, but will be here. We also have tours for families potentially coming to Harrison Park next year from 4:00-5:30.