EAD 536 Artifact #1 ELCC 6
Adverse Situations
Sabrina L. Manuel
College of Education, Grand Canyon University
EAD 536: Strategic Leadership and Management in the Principalship
John Utne
August 31, 2022
Management and Operational Systems
Heat conditions are a growing concern across the world as the climate continues to change. We seem to be dealing with higher heat and more humid weather conditions either starting earlier in Spring or lasting longer into the Fall. According to Arizona Department of Health Services (2021) each school is required to have an extreme heat plan in place so that would be the first place to start in this situation. I know that this will impact many of our families and stakeholders, but these conditions can be hazardous to the health of our staff and students if we do not act immediately. The plan of extreme heat would have been shared with parents, staff, and the school board. Contacting the school board to inform them that I must execute my extreme heat plan based off the conditions of the air conditioning and its impact on the school and students at this time would be my second step. Also, at the same time having the facilities and maintenance manager to contact his supervisor to report to the school immediately to confirm the conditions of the AC unit and the temperature of the school while the school board officials are giving approval to proceed with shutting down the school.
The additional information that would be needed to inform my decision would come from the facilities and maintenance manager and district officials. The facilities manager would let us know if the problem could be repaired in a timely manner and if temporary systems could be put in place to provide sufficient air flow in the building until the repair was completed. If this was not feasible, the district officials could determine if another location could be used instead of early dismissal, and we could continue the teaching environment in a temporary space for the day and inform parents of the alternative location. We would then need to set-up transportation of all students to the temporary location and give parents the option to pick their student up instead of being transported to the new location if that could be done in a timely manner. The main thing that must be considered is time, we need to work fast to prevent having any health risks to our staff and students in the building.
Human, Fiscal, and Technological Resources
The staff will have training prior to this event according to the Arizona School Board Association (2018), so when the decision is made to implement the execution of plan (EOP) the staff will be familiar with this term and will know exactly what their role is within this process. The school secretary is informed that I have decided to implement the EOP, and we will begin with an all-school evacuation starting with the designated classrooms in the plan to evacuate first and exit to the buses.
My plan would require the students to exit the classroom ahead of the teacher and line-up in the hallway to be ready to maneuver when called by the hall monitor to move to the bus. The classroom teacher will check the classroom for any sleeping students, remove their belongings and attendance roster or technology that allows accurate record of each student. All buses are air conditioned; this will provide immediate relief to students.
We will need additional support from district level personnel to serve as hall monitors, lines of communication with parents and staff, escorts, bus monitors and communicators with parents and office staff. We could potentially need temporary fans set-up to help with ventilation while the evacuation is taking place. We need additional support at the temporary site, to set-up and receive the staff and students. We could potentially utilize additional staff from nearby schools to help with the special education population and give that additional support at both locations. We would need additional support with speaking with parents to ensure their safety at the alternative location.
Safety and Welfare of Students and Staff
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration archive (2021) addresses the interest of workers working in extreme heat conditions for excessive days and this is one of the first things that must be taken into consideration when these conditions become a challenge in our building. Staff can become concerned for their own safety and begin to contact their union reps in response to our lack of action to resolve this matter. Students have similar laws in place to protect their health and well-being while in our schools. It is these laws that drive the decisions we make to close school’s early and completely due to high heat temperatures. The school and the school district could face fines, and lawsuits by not responding to the high heat index and making these difficult decisions.
Collaboration with Faculty and Community
The possibilities in this situation could involve our business partners in the community who choose to be informed in the event of situations like this and if they are a part of our EOP, then they will be contacted to help in the decision-making process. The Arizona Department of Education (2019) template for EOP plans suggest having a list of public information officers to contact in the event of an emergency and this list can include those community partners.
The EOP should be updated each year to reflect the names of designated staff members who are authorized to act in authority in the event of these situations. These persons are authorized to follow the EOP and begin evacuation procedures as discussed with administration in their training.
Solution and Rationale
An EOP is required according to Arizona State Law (2019), and every school year we will review and update that plan with the administrative team and designated stakeholders (teachers, business partners, and parents). After the plan has been updated and approved by the district and the Arizona Department of Health Services, the team will go through a series of trainings in preparation for execution of the plan. In this situation our team has been selected and has gone through that training and our plan has been approved, with this information in hand and the above information being addressed by district personnel and the facilities and maintenance supervisor, I have decided that it is in the best interest of my staff and students to execute the EOP at this time and we will take the following steps to address the situation of rising temperatures at Sunset Hills K-8 School:
References
Arizona Department of Education. (2019). Arizona School Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). https://www.azed.gov/sites/default/files/2019/08/AZ%20School%20EOP%20Minimum%20Requirements%20-%20FINAL.pdf?id=5d54571e1dcb250abc4a8245
Arizona School Boards Association. (2018). Policies and Procedures Gilbert School District. https://policy.azsba.org/asba/browse/gilbert/gilbert/GILBERT
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Hierarchy of Controls. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hierarchy/default.html
United States Department of Labor. OSHA Archive. (2021). https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2021-09-01
Adverse Situations
Sabrina L. Manuel
College of Education, Grand Canyon University
EAD 536: Strategic Leadership and Management in the Principalship
John Utne
August 31, 2022
Management and Operational Systems
Heat conditions are a growing concern across the world as the climate continues to change. We seem to be dealing with higher heat and more humid weather conditions either starting earlier in Spring or lasting longer into the Fall. According to Arizona Department of Health Services (2021) each school is required to have an extreme heat plan in place so that would be the first place to start in this situation. I know that this will impact many of our families and stakeholders, but these conditions can be hazardous to the health of our staff and students if we do not act immediately. The plan of extreme heat would have been shared with parents, staff, and the school board. Contacting the school board to inform them that I must execute my extreme heat plan based off the conditions of the air conditioning and its impact on the school and students at this time would be my second step. Also, at the same time having the facilities and maintenance manager to contact his supervisor to report to the school immediately to confirm the conditions of the AC unit and the temperature of the school while the school board officials are giving approval to proceed with shutting down the school.
The additional information that would be needed to inform my decision would come from the facilities and maintenance manager and district officials. The facilities manager would let us know if the problem could be repaired in a timely manner and if temporary systems could be put in place to provide sufficient air flow in the building until the repair was completed. If this was not feasible, the district officials could determine if another location could be used instead of early dismissal, and we could continue the teaching environment in a temporary space for the day and inform parents of the alternative location. We would then need to set-up transportation of all students to the temporary location and give parents the option to pick their student up instead of being transported to the new location if that could be done in a timely manner. The main thing that must be considered is time, we need to work fast to prevent having any health risks to our staff and students in the building.
Human, Fiscal, and Technological Resources
The staff will have training prior to this event according to the Arizona School Board Association (2018), so when the decision is made to implement the execution of plan (EOP) the staff will be familiar with this term and will know exactly what their role is within this process. The school secretary is informed that I have decided to implement the EOP, and we will begin with an all-school evacuation starting with the designated classrooms in the plan to evacuate first and exit to the buses.
My plan would require the students to exit the classroom ahead of the teacher and line-up in the hallway to be ready to maneuver when called by the hall monitor to move to the bus. The classroom teacher will check the classroom for any sleeping students, remove their belongings and attendance roster or technology that allows accurate record of each student. All buses are air conditioned; this will provide immediate relief to students.
We will need additional support from district level personnel to serve as hall monitors, lines of communication with parents and staff, escorts, bus monitors and communicators with parents and office staff. We could potentially need temporary fans set-up to help with ventilation while the evacuation is taking place. We need additional support at the temporary site, to set-up and receive the staff and students. We could potentially utilize additional staff from nearby schools to help with the special education population and give that additional support at both locations. We would need additional support with speaking with parents to ensure their safety at the alternative location.
Safety and Welfare of Students and Staff
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration archive (2021) addresses the interest of workers working in extreme heat conditions for excessive days and this is one of the first things that must be taken into consideration when these conditions become a challenge in our building. Staff can become concerned for their own safety and begin to contact their union reps in response to our lack of action to resolve this matter. Students have similar laws in place to protect their health and well-being while in our schools. It is these laws that drive the decisions we make to close school’s early and completely due to high heat temperatures. The school and the school district could face fines, and lawsuits by not responding to the high heat index and making these difficult decisions.
Collaboration with Faculty and Community
The possibilities in this situation could involve our business partners in the community who choose to be informed in the event of situations like this and if they are a part of our EOP, then they will be contacted to help in the decision-making process. The Arizona Department of Education (2019) template for EOP plans suggest having a list of public information officers to contact in the event of an emergency and this list can include those community partners.
The EOP should be updated each year to reflect the names of designated staff members who are authorized to act in authority in the event of these situations. These persons are authorized to follow the EOP and begin evacuation procedures as discussed with administration in their training.
Solution and Rationale
An EOP is required according to Arizona State Law (2019), and every school year we will review and update that plan with the administrative team and designated stakeholders (teachers, business partners, and parents). After the plan has been updated and approved by the district and the Arizona Department of Health Services, the team will go through a series of trainings in preparation for execution of the plan. In this situation our team has been selected and has gone through that training and our plan has been approved, with this information in hand and the above information being addressed by district personnel and the facilities and maintenance supervisor, I have decided that it is in the best interest of my staff and students to execute the EOP at this time and we will take the following steps to address the situation of rising temperatures at Sunset Hills K-8 School:
- After the facility manager has determined that there is no immediate solution to the AC system and it cannot be repaired within the hour, we will contact the business partner on our EOP who is within a two-mile radius of our school to see if his facility can house our students in attendance. IMMEDIATELY
- The on-staff leader who is responsible for working with the staff directly to begin coordinating the evacuation of students has been contacted and coverage for her classroom is in place. She is now coordinating all district personnel throughout the building to begin evacuations upon notification from administration that evacuation to the busses can begin. COMPLETED WITHIN ONE HOUR
- All Assistant Principals have been assigned to the secretarial team and ensuring that they have secured transportation to arrive within the hour. IMMEDIATELY
- Attendance secretaries only will issue a robo-call to all parents once we have secured the off-site location to inform parents that we will begin evacuating students from our location to the alternative site. There will be no parent pick-up at the school to prevent the slowing down of the evacuation process. 20 MINUTES AFTER SECURED LOCATION
- District personnel have been dispatched to the alternative site to arrange classrooms, meet students and staff, and to greet parents. We also have set-up additional police officers to assist with safety at the alternative location, so we do not have a risk to the business partners facility or any harm to the students upon arrival by moving them from their secured location. We will have a temporary pick-up place for parents to park until all students have arrived and we can begin dismissal at the alternative site. IMMEDIATELY
- Once busses arrive at the school, all evacuation processes can begin with the staff leader leading the process. The classrooms will be dismissed individually by the staff member with the teacher being the last person to evacuate the classroom and board the bus. Locking the classroom will indicate that the classroom has been cleared by the staff member and checked by the teacher for all students. Students will remain on the air-conditioned busses until all classrooms are cleared and we can safely transport all students at the same time.
- Once we have evacuated the entire school, the facility and maintenance staff will do a final walkthrough of the school to ensure that all students have been safely removed by going into each locked classroom and checking the temperature of that classroom for their final building check. All staff will then be required to evacuate the school and report to the new facility until the school’s AC unit can be repaired.
References
Arizona Department of Education. (2019). Arizona School Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). https://www.azed.gov/sites/default/files/2019/08/AZ%20School%20EOP%20Minimum%20Requirements%20-%20FINAL.pdf?id=5d54571e1dcb250abc4a8245
Arizona School Boards Association. (2018). Policies and Procedures Gilbert School District. https://policy.azsba.org/asba/browse/gilbert/gilbert/GILBERT
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Hierarchy of Controls. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hierarchy/default.html
United States Department of Labor. OSHA Archive. (2021). https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2021-09-01
Interview with Valencia Carthen, Principal on special assignment
I have the pleasure today of interviewing Ms. Valencia Carthen and she has been in education for over 23 years with the last 13 of those years being spent in leadership. She is currently on a special assignment that requires her to focus on the district policies and develop the team that will decide which policies should be revised and rewritten in the upcoming school year. That assignment takes place within the district offices. She describes this temporary placement as an educational moment in her professional career. She has described to me the process that she must personally oversee before a policy can be changed or revised in any capacity and how these changes ultimately affect the job of the principal/vice principals.
Under normal circumstances the district policy is rewritten every 5 years but on certain occasions and when laws may have been broken a committee is formed to see the best way the district should go about changing that policy to best suit the needs of the student’s and staff that they serve. No one person makes these decisions alone so there is what she calls a committee of people who sit down and focus on the area of the manual that has been called to the attention of the team to focus on based on previous events that may have taken place. Those committee members are usually from the community, board members, business partners, some principals, and parents. The members are separated into various small committees, and they take certain parts of the rule or manual and focus on it before the voting begins. Once the committee has voted, the rule or regulations is changed or revised based on the suggestions of the committee members. The principal’s role in this process is the executor of the new rule, they will receive a copy of the updated rule and will have access to it through a shared drive. They will then roll out this new information to their staff ensuring proper training if necessary. I had to mention to her that this process seemed a bit too simple for policies that carry so much weight, but she assured me that maybe on the surface it appeared that way, but it was definitely a lot more work than she ever knew. She mentioned that it is the duty of the school principal to execute the new policy even if they do not agree with it or approve of it as it has been rewritten. In order for the school district to avoid being sued for being negligent in not properly training staff for the changes of a policy, principals must roll out the new policy immediately once it is shared with them. I know that I will have the pleasure of applying this knowledge to my future role because I think that it is awesome for us to revisit policies and procedures frequently so that we continue to be forward thinking and not become stagnat. As a future leader myself, I believe that my personal vision should be revised on a continual bases to reflect growth and progress and while the districts manual cannot be written in this manner, I think that I like that it is taken into consideration once an incident has occurred and the principals have a voice in the process if they choose as well.
I have the pleasure today of interviewing Ms. Valencia Carthen and she has been in education for over 23 years with the last 13 of those years being spent in leadership. She is currently on a special assignment that requires her to focus on the district policies and develop the team that will decide which policies should be revised and rewritten in the upcoming school year. That assignment takes place within the district offices. She describes this temporary placement as an educational moment in her professional career. She has described to me the process that she must personally oversee before a policy can be changed or revised in any capacity and how these changes ultimately affect the job of the principal/vice principals.
Under normal circumstances the district policy is rewritten every 5 years but on certain occasions and when laws may have been broken a committee is formed to see the best way the district should go about changing that policy to best suit the needs of the student’s and staff that they serve. No one person makes these decisions alone so there is what she calls a committee of people who sit down and focus on the area of the manual that has been called to the attention of the team to focus on based on previous events that may have taken place. Those committee members are usually from the community, board members, business partners, some principals, and parents. The members are separated into various small committees, and they take certain parts of the rule or manual and focus on it before the voting begins. Once the committee has voted, the rule or regulations is changed or revised based on the suggestions of the committee members. The principal’s role in this process is the executor of the new rule, they will receive a copy of the updated rule and will have access to it through a shared drive. They will then roll out this new information to their staff ensuring proper training if necessary. I had to mention to her that this process seemed a bit too simple for policies that carry so much weight, but she assured me that maybe on the surface it appeared that way, but it was definitely a lot more work than she ever knew. She mentioned that it is the duty of the school principal to execute the new policy even if they do not agree with it or approve of it as it has been rewritten. In order for the school district to avoid being sued for being negligent in not properly training staff for the changes of a policy, principals must roll out the new policy immediately once it is shared with them. I know that I will have the pleasure of applying this knowledge to my future role because I think that it is awesome for us to revisit policies and procedures frequently so that we continue to be forward thinking and not become stagnat. As a future leader myself, I believe that my personal vision should be revised on a continual bases to reflect growth and progress and while the districts manual cannot be written in this manner, I think that I like that it is taken into consideration once an incident has occurred and the principals have a voice in the process if they choose as well.