Orono Superintendent Credits Practice for Safe Building Evacuation

By Dr. Karen Orcutt 
Superintendent of Orono Schools

Every school year, state law requires us to conduct five fire drills, five lockdown drills and a tornado drill. They just scratch the surface of a comprehensive set of procedures in place to keep students and staff safe in the event of nearly every imaginable emergency situation.

On Thursday, Dec. 22, we had the opportunity to put all of our planning and practice into action. It wasn’t the kind of day one anticipates before dismissing for Winter Break, but, then, emergencies are always surprises.

Here’s what happened in a sentence: All the fire alarms sounded at Orono Middle School because a sprinkler went off, so we evacuated students there to Orono High School.

While we still don’t have all the answers from that morning, this is the perfect opportunity to express our gratitude to everyone involved.

Have you ever noticed the flip chart of brightly-colored pages in your child’s classroom(s)? They aren’t a decoration∏—our staff really knows the contents of these emergency procedures. Our success in handling this event began with the quick thinking and action of the staff at Orono Middle Schoolp; OMS students deserve kudos, as well, because they took this turn in their day very seriously and acted accordingly.

Once we received the all-clear from the fire and police departments, OMS students returned to their school to finish the day. As teachers and administrators lined Old Crystal Bay Road to guide them back, they thanked us!

It provided yet another piece of anecdotal evidence about the success of our character education program.  

We also need to thank the staff and students of Orono High School, who graciously hosted some 700 additional students for about two hours. The food service staff was amazing, as it took on the challenge of feeding these additional students.

We were very fortunate to have the expertise of the Long Lake Fire Department and Orono Police Department on site. With their help, we were able to quickly determine that no fire was involved and that the spray that hit a few students was simply dirty, smelly water—not a chemical fire retardant (the water had been in the hoses feeding the sprinklers since the school opened in 2000). Their cooperation and assistance that morning was invaluable in keeping order and continues to benefit us as we conclude our investigation.  

It was a brief, but shining moment of how well our community is served when different governmental agencies cooperate for the common good.

Students returned to OMS about 1:15 p.m. By that time, the scene had been largely cleaned up by our custodial staff and fire-fighters on the scene.  

Four classrooms and part of a fifth were damaged, but thanks to the extra efforts of our Buildings and Grounds staff and Murphy Construction Services it was business as usual when students returned to school Jan. 3.  

The contractor was on site the next day and continued working nearly every day through winter break.

During that day, we sent two Instant Alert messages: one as soon as we had credible information about what was going on and an update as we prepared to send students back to the middle school.  

Because all of our schools are located on one campus, an emergency at one may impact another one or all of them. That’s why we sent the messages to all parents rather than just middle school parents. When it comes to safety, we will always choose to be overly cautious. We appreciate that parents trusted our assessment of the situation and how we were handling it.

Everyone should take great pride in the end result.  

It proves that your school district is well prepared and well supported to handle emergencies should they surprise us again in the future.