Newtown Shootings: Iowa City School District Responds to Parent Worries About School Safety

Media Release

The Iowa City Community School District extends its condolences to the families, first responders, and community devastated by the tragic events in Connecticut last week.

“Safety is a critical ongoing component of our education system. The District constantly monitors and looks for ways to enhance our safety measures and readiness for critical incidents.” Stated Superintendent Murley.  

The District has a comprehensive crisis plan in place for each school.  This plan is reviewed and updated annually and each school reviews that plan with their staff. Practice of the evacuation plan happens at the building level every year.  As part of that crisis plan there is an incident command approach and communication to parents and community would be done through that plan.

Blackboard Connect is our mass notification system and can alert parents in a matter of minutes.  Each school has the ability to utilize that system as does the District.  Preparing for such as emergency is an ongoing process and requires planning and training on a yearly basis.  Several things that are currently underway in our District:

1. This fall the District began a systematic collaborative evaluation of all emergency plans.  All Administrators are currently meeting with their local police, fire and ambulance service for a tabletop review of their emergency plans. The Iowa City Schools met with local officials on December 5th, North Liberty Schools are meeting this Thursday, December 20th, and Coralville Schools are scheduled to meet on January 16th to assess emergency planning with local authorities.

2.Each building is beginning the process of being reviewed by BLDD Architects as part of long range facility planning.  These building reviews begin on Wednesday December 20th, and evaluation of each school facility will include safety and security as part of the facility assessment.

3. This fall several Administrators participated in Violent Intruder Training (VIST) with the University of Iowa Public Safety Department.  Ongoing trainings for staff are being planned.  Additionally, Administrators at the ESC met with a state expert this fall to evaluate our overall safety planning process.

4. Guidance counselors are prepared with resources to deal with student and staff concerns this week.

 “This tragic and unfortunate event has certainly heightened our own emphasis on safety planning in the District,” Murley stated.