Safety Coordinator Manual Huntsville City Schools Safety Department Document Date of Revision: July 11, 2014
Contents What is the Safety Coordinator?... 2 What are the Primary Responsibilities of the Safety Coordinator?... 2 Required Safety Drills... 2 Required Annual Emergency Response Training for School Personnel... 3 Emergency Response Flipcharts & Evacuation/Severe Weather Maps... 3 Annual Safety Plan Review... 3 Accident Investigations... 3 Fire Marshal Inspections... 4 Monthly Safety Training Reports... 4 Yearly Calendar of Tasks... 6 Appendix A Virtual Alabama Guide... 7 Signing Up... 7 VA Access... 7 VA School Safety System Access... 7 Editing Your Safety Plans & Logging Emergency Drills... 9 Appendix B Emergency Response Flipchart Photo... 11 Appendix C Flipchart & Map Survey Form... 12 Page 1
What is the Safety Coordinator? The Safety Coordinator is the individual selected by the principal to act as the primary liaison to the district Safety Manager. Currently, the Safety Coordinator receives a $275 supplement for completing the tasks outlined in this manual. What are the Primary Responsibilities of the Safety Coordinator? The Safety Coordinator s primary responsibilities are to: Schedule monthly safety drills with the principal Log safety drill data into Virtual Alabama Conduct annual emergency response training for school staff Check all classrooms and general assembly areas for emergency response flipcharts and evacuation/severe weather maps. Review school safety plan on Virtual Alabama with your school safety committee Lead accident investigations at school Meet with fire marshal inspector during inspection Review monthly safety training reports More specific instructions on each of the above items are explained in this manual. Required Safety Drills The Alabama Department of Education requires schools to perform monthly safety drills during any month that students occupy the building. There are specific requirements for certain drills to be performed at specific times during the school year. These are listed below. Code Red Safety Drills 1 drill per semester during the first 6 weeks of each semester. Code Red safety drills are drills that pertain to acts of violence that could take place in the school, such as an active shooter event. This includes lockdown and intruder drills. DO NOT USE CODES WHEN CONDUCTING THESE DRILLS! Seasonal Severe Weather Drills 1 drill is required in the range of September-November and 1 drill is required in the range of January-March. Fire Drills fire drills are required monthly unless a separate safety drill (e.g. severe weather or code red) has already been conducted during the same month. For example, if a code red drill has been conducted in August no additional drills are required for the month of August. For instruction on logging drills see Appendix A Virtual Alabama Guide included in this manual. Page 2
Required Annual Emergency Response Training for School Personnel The Alabama Department of Education requires that all school personnel be trained on emergency response procedure each year. This training should take place within the first month of the school year. Topics covered shall include: Overview of the Emergency Response Flipchart Location of the Emergency Response Flipchart (which should be next to the door) Orientation of Evacuation Procedures Orientation of Severe Weather Refuge Spaces Orientation of Lockdown Procedures This training must be logged in Virtual Alabama. The process is the same as logging drills. Emergency Response Flipcharts & Evacuation/Severe Weather Maps All classrooms and student occupied general assembly areas shall have a current emergency response flipcharts & evacuation/severe weather map posted by the entrance and/or exit of the room. The Safety Coordinator shall check all areas to account for these items. Any deficiencies shall be noted and submitted to the Safety Office. A form, Appendix C Flipchart & Map Survey Form, is included in this manual. This is to be completed by the end of the second week of school. A picture of the current flipchart is provided in Appendix B Emergency Response Flipchart Photo. Only revisions A, B, or C of the HCS standardized flipchart are acceptable. Annual Safety Plan Review All schools in Alabama are required to have an individual safety plan that is housed on Virtual Alabama. This safety plan shall be reviewed annually to account for changes in personnel and any changing hazards on the school s campus. All sections must be complete and up-to-date. While all forms can be completed online, at times this is not convenient. There are templates for each form that can be printed from the Virtual Alabama website to help with this process. The Safety Office can offer assistance with logging information from the forms to lessen the burden on the Safety Coordinator as this can be a time consuming task. If you need this assistance please contact the Safety Manager to coordinate the exchange of forms. The Safety Office will NOT log safety drill information for schools. The Safety Manager will conduct annual reviews of each school s safety plan to ensure its completeness and accuracy. Accident Investigations When an accident occurs it is imperative that accurate information be collected in a timely matter. The Accident Report/On-the-Job Injury form is required to be completed and submitted to the Safety Office within 24 hours of Page 3
an accident occurring. This form is available on the HCS Safety website as a PDF form and a hard copy has been provided in this manual. Please ensure that these forms are competed accurately and completely. Critical information to obtain is: A complete description of the accident including the: who, what, when, where and why. Pictures of the accident scene, if applicable. Witness statements Relevant historical information Any immediate corrective actions put into place Any forms filled out incompletely will be sent back to the Safety Coordinator for corrections. Fire Marshal Inspections The Safety Coordinator will be the lead HCS representative for annual Fire Marshal inspections. Previous citations range from storing materials in front of electrical panels to more serious violations that required Operations assistance to correct. It is the Safety Coordinator s responsibility to correct any issues that can be fixed at the school level (e.g. removing stored items from in front of electrical panels, ensuring evacuation signage is posted in each room, etc.) and to ensure that work orders are submitted to correct any additional citations the require Operations support. A copy of the previous year s inspection will be provided to the Safety Coordinator in the month of August. Typically Fire Marshal inspections take place in September. During this time please verify that any items from the previous year s inspection have been addressed appropriately. Monthly Safety Training Reports The foundation of any good safety program is a robust and comprehensive training program. Huntsville City Schools uses the web-based training, SafeSchools to manage employee safety training. A monthly report will be sent to the Safety Coordinator from the Safety Office. Please review this report and follow up with employees who have outstanding (past due) training courses. If they need assistance in completing their courses take appropriate actions. Common Questions: Who do I contact for login or computer related problems? For help with password or login issues contact Carla Frasier in the IT Department at (256) 428-6900. email: carla.frasier@hsv-k12.org Who do I contact questions about policies? For questions about policy documents and updates contact Human Resources at (256) 428-6839. Page 4
Who do I contact for safety related questions? For questions about safety training contact Ben Bowden in the Safety Department at (256) 428-8326. email: benjamen.bowden@hsv-k12.org Is there a location where I can take training if I don t have my own computer? YES! Did you know there is a resource center located at the Annex where all employees can go to get help with training and use school owned computers? Contact Henry Avanrenren at (256) 428-8342 for more information. The school library is also a good place to try and take training as well. Page 5
Yearly Calendar of Tasks On Going Tasks Completed? Notes Investigate Accidents as Necessary Submit Safety Related Work Orders August Complete Flipchart & Map Survey Conduct Annual Emergency Response Training September Assist in Fire Marshal Inspection Review School Safety Plan and Make Corrections October November December January February March April May Page 6
Appendix A Virtual Alabama Guide Signing Up To access Virtual Alabama, please visit https://virtual.alabama.gov/ and register for an account. Once you have registered and receive your account credentials via email, log into the website and click to download the VA Desktop Client. VA Access Once you have downloaded the VA Desktop Client, an icon for the program will be saved to your desktop. Double click on the icon to open Virtual Alabama. You will be prompted for your account credentials. Once you are logged in, the VA globe will appear and the layers menu on the left hand side will display. VA School Safety System Access The Virtual Alabama School Safety System is one of many data layers within the Virtual AL application. To access the VA School Safety System (VAS 3 ), scroll down the layers menu until you see the VAS 3 apple logo, and click on the checkbox. You will then be prompted for credentials to access your district or campus directory so that you may view your map. Signing Up Page 7
On the Virtual Alabama website you will click here to download the desktop version. VA Access VA School Safety System Access Page 8
Editing Your Safety Plans & Logging Emergency Drills To edit your safety or log emergency drills go to https://safeschools.alacop.gov/. You will use the same username and password that is used to log into the desktop client (map view). After you log in the first screen will look something like the picture below. Click on Safety Plan in the top menu bar. After you ve clicked Safety Plan the top of the screen will like the picture below. Click on Safety Plan Forms on the left hand side of the screen. Page 9
After you ve click on the Safety Forms menu a screen like the one pictured below will appear. Use the links on the left hand side to perform edits. Page 10
Appendix B Emergency Response Flipchart Photo Page 11
Appendix C Flipchart & Map Survey Form Complete this form within the first two weeks of school and return to the Safety Office. Do all classrooms and general assembly areas have an Emergency Response Flipchart? YES NO Rooms without flipcharts (use the table below to note rooms without). List of Rooms Without Flipcharts Do all classrooms and general assembly areas have an Evacuation/Sever Weather Map? YES NO Rooms without maps (use the table below to note rooms without). List of Rooms Without Maps Notes: Page 12