Safety is always a priority in Woodward-Granger Schools. Over the years, we have made refinements to ensure our students and staff are safe. Examples would be our single, secure front entrances in our buildings, check-in procedures
for volunteers/visitors and the development of protocols to respond to a variety of emergency situations.
This school year, our district will begin training on a new way to handle an active shooter situation called ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate). The Iowa Legislature passed a new bill, Senate File 2364, which requires all schools to have a plan in place for active shooters and to train school personnel on those plans annually. The ALICE program provides strategies for staff and students on what to do if an armed intruder enters their building or classroom. You will be hearing more about this throughout the spring.
We will begin by training teachers and other school personnel in early spring. In late spring we will pursue student experiences, in which we conduct the state-required drills. Each group of students will be trained in age-appropriate ways. For example, the discussion about what an armed intruder is will be different for first-graders than for high school seniors. At the end of the training, all our students will understand and be better prepared for this type of emergency situation.
By the end of the school year, every person in the district will be ALICE trained and all staff will be certified in the ALICE program. This means that no matter what building, our staff and students will be prepared. Until our training is complete, we will follow our current emergency procedures.
We understand that the thought of an armed intruder is terrifying. This is truly the worst-case scenario, but we believe our district should be ready to take action in an emergency. We do not want our staff or students to be scared; we want them to be prepared.
We encourage you to read through the official ALICE Training Institute website at https://www.alicetraining.com. If you have any questions, please contact Matt Adams at 999-8022.
Dr. Matt Adams
Superintendent
