U-46 solidifies school safety plan

Though it's been two years in the making, a vote this week made a comprehensive safety plan official in Elgin Area School District U-46.

The school board Monday voted to adopt the National Incident Management System, an emergency response plan developed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Along with allowing the district to apply for federal safety grants, the system, Safety Coordinator John Heiderscheidt said, will require U-46 to participate in prevention, mitigation and training exercises together with emergency responders.

Heiderscheidt, a former Buffalo Grove police officer, began to implement a centralized plan shortly after he was hired in 2006.

Consisting of nine components, each of U-46's 53 schools now would respond - and receive help - during a crisis in a nearly identical fashion.

With just weeks remaining in the 2008-09 school year, Heiderscheidt says 100 percent of staff members look to receive lockdown and crisis management training.

During the 2007-08 school year that was 93 percent, up 23 percent from 2006-07.

Before Heiderscheidt arrived, just 4 percent of the district's staff had received such training.

Reciprocal reporting agreements between U-46 and the 11 communities it encompasses have now been established everywhere except Schaumburg and unincorporated Cook and DuPage counties, Heiderscheidt said.

During a crisis, communication equipment including a rapid response system, two-way radios and emergency red phones can be utilized.

This equipment was tested during two 2008 incidents - an April firecracker prank at South Elgin High School and the January attack on an Elgin High School teacher.

A weapons prevention program, introduced last April, randomly checks high school students for weapons with a hand-held metal detector in six classrooms twice per month, Heiderscheidt said.

With the NIMS certification, Heiderscheidt said the district must focus on revising its emergency plan and taking that document to Kane, Cook and DuPage counties over the summer.

The goal, he said, is to establish common practices not only within the district but with the 11 communities it encompasses.

For example, during the recent swine flu outbreak, Heiderscheidt said there was a marked difference in the reactions of the three county health departments.

"We have to find a consistent middle ground moving forward," he said.