Amesbury Public Schools Update

While my monthly newsletter will not be published until next week, I have some information that is timely and needs to be shared prior to next week.

As you know, as a District, we have been training on the different responses in the Standard Response Protocol (SRP). The SRP is based on an all hazards approach as opposed to individual scenarios. This is a very simple idea - there are five specific actions that can be performed during an incident. A determination is made by the administration and/or public safety, a directive is made to utilize one of the five responses, and school community members execute those responses. The five responses are: Hold, Secure, Lockdown, Evacuate, and Shelter. In most buildings, we have utilized both Holds and Secures, for naturally occurring events in our schools such as a medical or behavioral event. Our students and staff are very practiced at utilizing those responses.

Earlier this year, we practiced a Lockdown response in all of our buildings. Our students and staff responded incredibly well. In the upcoming weeks, we will practice a Lockdown response in every building. Each principal has selected a day and time that works best for their building. They will be sharing this information with staff and are encouraged to have staff members talk with students as well.

It is important that we work as a team to support our students in all areas, but especially in an area such as this that creates a significant amount of anxiety for all of us involved. The I Love You Guys Foundation has so many incredible resources including this handout for parents. The iloveyouguys.org website offers more in depth explanations, videos, resources for parents, and many other things. I encourage you to visit the website.

I am going to share the dates of each of the lockdowns with you. If you arrive to a school while a lockdown drill is occurring, you should remain in your car until the end of the drill. We will not allow anyone in or out of the building during the drill. Based on the fall lockdown drills that we did, each drill lasted between 15-30 minutes. We sincerely appreciate your cooperation as we work with our students on this very difficult concept.

As always, if your child experiences any difficulty leading up to the drill or following the drill, please reach out to the guidance or adjustment counselor at the child's school. We fully understand that each student will respond to the event differently. We need your partnership in this situation as students often "hold it together" while in school and share more information at home. If this is the case, please let us know. We want to support everyone.

AMS and CES will conduct their drills on Monday, May 1st

AIHS ad AES will conduct their drills on Tuesday, May 2nd

AHS will conduct its drill on Monday, May 15th.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at elizabeth.mcandrews@amesburyma.org.

Thank you in advance for your support,

Elizabeth McAndrews

Elizabeth McAndrews

Superintendent

Come support our talented students! All shows start at 7 pm. Tonight, Friday and Saturday night. If you go tonight, I will see you there!