WEATHER RELATED CLOSINGS

About weather closings

The school uses a variety of sources of information to determine whether to close schools, delay the opening of schools, or dismiss schools early. These sources include actual physical inspection of the roads and school conditions by the Department of Public Works officials and information provided by the Superintendents' Office of Middletown Public Schools.

The most severe weather conditions existing within the town are used as the basic criteria for the decision-making process. Consistent procedures are maintained in order to respond quickly to emergency weather conditions and protect the safety and well being of students.

If schools are closed or delayed, the announcement is made no later than 6:00 a.m. (or the night before if possible). If schools are closing early, the announcements are made by 10:00 a.m.

DELAYS / DISMISSALS / CLOSINGS FOR STUDENTS

Delayed Opening
School will open 90 minutes late, and all operations including bus transportation are delayed 90 minutes from the regular schedule. Other activities and programs that are scheduled to begin before the posted delayed opening time will be canceled.

Emergency Early Dismissal
If the school is dismissed early all operations affecting dismissal of students, including bus transportation will be activated to reflect the earlier than the regular school closing time.
School and community activities for the afternoon and evening will be canceled.

School Closings
When schools are closed, all school community activities are canceled, including athletic practices and events. In extreme conditions, the administrative offices may be closed.

CRISIS INTERVENTION IN THE SCHOOLS

When a tragedy, such as a loss of life or devastating event, affects a school community, crisis intervention services are available. Crisis response teams comprised of school counselors, social worker, and psychologist, with additional support staff, offer the support needed within the school. Their interventions are integral to ensuring students' continued availability for learning and to address possible long-term impacts of the event(s).
Should the impact of a traumatic event affect the school community significantly, crisis resource teams are available for support. The school psychologist and social worker are assigned to teams and teams are on call for additional assistance, consultation, intervention, logistics, etc.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What is emergency preparedness?
Vinal Technical High School has taken steps to ensure your child's safety while in school. The school has developed emergency preparedness plans including the steps staff will take in the event of an emergency, including a parent communication plan and evacuation plan.

2. What is lockdown?
An emergency may prevent the safe evacuation of a school building and require steps to isolate students and faculty from danger by instituting a school lockdown. In an interior lockdown situation, all students are kept in classrooms or other designated locations that are away from the danger. Faculty members are responsible for accounting for students and ensuring that no one leaves the safe area. School personnel will also secure building entrances, ensuring that no unauthorized individuals leave or enter the building. Exterior lockdown procedures may also be used to ensure the safety of students when an incident occurs in the community. Parents are permitted access to the building and to their children if it is safe for them to do so.

3. What is shelter-in-place?
Shelter-in-place is a short-term measure (measured in minutes or hours, not days) designed to use a facility and its indoor atmosphere to temporarily separate people from a hazardous outdoor environment. If an accident or attack that created contaminated air occurred in the school area, students would be brought indoors. Building personnel would close all windows and doors and shut down the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC). This would create a neutral pressure in the building, meaning the contaminated air would not be drawn into the building. No stockpiling of water and food is needed for shelter-in-place. Any event of a magnitude that required such stockpiling would require that the school community as well as the community at large, would take direction from the federal emergency management officials. Parents should not be concerned that, during a shelter-in-place activity, they might be separated from their children for long periods of time. That will not happen because if the air outside the school is safe for parents to breathe, it will be safe for their children to breathe. School system personnel have developed a plan that uses the best possible method for ensuring the safety of students and staff members in this type of crisis.

4. What if a child is exposed to a biological or chemical contaminant?
In the event of an exposure--and the child is showing obvious symptoms, trained staff members on hand would conduct basic decontamination per the emergency training directive.

5. What is basic decontamination?
In the event that a child shows symptoms of exposure, school staff members would conduct basic decontamination. The child would be separated from other children and directed to wash thoroughly with soap and water. If possible, school personnel would make sure that the child showered and would provide alternative clothing. The exposed clothing would be put in plastic bags, and the bags would be sealed. Removing a contaminated person's clothing effectively removes in excess of 80 percent of contaminants from the person; the alternative would be to do nothing and thereby cause the person to suffer pain and possible serious injury.

6. Will I be allowed to pick up my child?
Vinal does not intend to keep children from their parents if a crisis occurs during school hours or school activities. It is the school intent to make sure that children are safe inside their schools until such a time that the threat has been reduced. Parents will be informed and reunited with their children as soon as it is safe to do so.

7. What if my child is riding a school bus at the time of a crisis?
The transportation service providers will be in contact with the office for instructions in the event that a crisis occurs while students are in transport. Bus drivers will be informed to avoid driving toward the crisis location.

8. Can I pick up my child?
Parents will be allowed to pick up their children unless public safety officials have declared a shelter-in-place response, or there is some other reason why access to the facility is restricted. During any emergency, school personnel will maintain a safe and normal environment for children within the school. School will not automatically be canceled in emergency situations because the school may be the safest place for children to be.

9. Who can pick up my children?
Children will not be released to individuals who are not authorized to on the student's emergency card or who do not have written parent authorization. Parents and guardians are encouraged to update the emergency care card as needed throughout the school year.

10. What about my child's medication?
If your child takes medication regularly, you the parent, should make sure that the school has an appropriate amount of additional medication on hand. Talk with your child's school nurse for more information.