Castleberry ISD Receives Grant to Install Crisis Management System

February 1, 2007
by Jo An Dennis
River Oaks News

Around the Town With Jo An Dennis

Rene' Moore, director of student services for Castleberry ISD was instrumental in gathering data concerning the Rapid Responder Crisis Management System and aided in applying for the U.S. Department of Education grant that was awarded to the school district. The installation of the system should be completed by the end of April.

Our hometown Castleberry Independent School District has announced they are the first school district in Texas to install the Rapid Responder Crisis Management System to protect students, staff and buildings during an emergency. Earlier in 2006, the district was awarded an Emergency Response and Crisis Management grant for $100,400 from the U.S. Department of Education. A Seattle, Washington based company, Prepared Response, Inc., a crisis management planning and response company, was awarded the contract and will be installing the system in all of the district's elementary, middle, high school and administration facilities. The district will also receive bio-emergency/infectious disease and critical incident training and response courses as part of the grant. Rapid Responder provides school security, police and fire departments, and other first responders' with key information that allows them to act quickly, decisively, safely, and in a coordinated response with other agencies.

According to Superintendent Gary Jones, "Castleberry ISD has always prided itself on working closely with emergency personnel to protect our students and staff." He added, "The cutting-edge, all-hazards Rapid Responder system will take our emergency planning to a new level by improving coordination and response during a crisis. It allows response agencies to develop crisis plans before an event occurs, thus saving time during an emergency."

Castleberry ISD has had a strong emergency management program for about six years and there has been a lot of coordination between the school district and the area emergency responders, according to Rene' Moore, director of student services for Castleberry ISD. However, the district felt it was time to take the next step by making the information they had available and easily accessible to all emergency responders' to help them in case of a crisis on any of the campuses. In late November, Rene' called a meeting in the Castleberry High School library with school administrators and first responders present to discuss the implementation of the system over the next few months. Well-trained representatives from Fort Worth Police and Fire Departments, River Oaks Police and Fire, Sansom Park Police and Fire, Tarrant County emergency personnel and Castleberry ISD Police personnel were present. There were also legislative representatives present as well as all school principals and administrators. Representing the River Oaks News, I was privileged to be asked to attend the meeting. Rene' presented Marti Wagner, vice president of Professional Services for Prepared Response, Inc., who showed critical films of the Rapid Responder program in action and moderated the meeting, answering many questions from the large audience of professionals.

In December, the emergency responders were brought back and another representative from Prepared Response met throughout the day with principals of the different schools in the Castleberry lSD, going through a series of pre¬planned tactical meetings. Aerial shots of each campus were shown and coordination began to be developed that would allow quick decisions to be made such as setting inner and outer perimeters, where road blocks could be set up, where a helicopter might land, where buses might line up in order to quickly evacuate students, where they could be taken to be picked up by parents, and how any injured could be removed. This sort of planning could be used in many situations from a fire to a hazardous material spill, a broken pipe or a shooting.

The Rapid Responder system will give our schools and first responders instant access to more than 300 facility data points, including floor plans, satellite and geospatial (GIS) information, interior and exterior photos, emergency plans, hazardous materials locations, utility shut-offs, and evacuation routes for virtually any of our school facilities. Rapid Responder is the only crisis management system to have been certified as a Qualified Anti-Terrorism Technology through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's SAFETY Act. All of the compiled data will be made available to the first responders by way of the internet on laptop computers, which incidentally, can run on batteries in case of power outages.

"The Castleberry School District is to be applauded for its proactive role in deploying a crisis management system to enhance the district's emergency preparedness," said Jim Finnell, president and CEO of Prepared Response, Inc. "We at Prepared Response feel that schools are among the country's most important critical infrastructure and are pleased to support this district." The system is designed to help in all types of emergencies and was used at a Washington State high school to quickly contain a gunman and evacuate 2,000 students in 20 minutes, and in another incident, to locate the shut-off valve for a broken fire sprinkler system, saving the district more than $100,000 in damages.

Rene' Moore spoke to the River Oaks/Sansom Park Area Chamber of Commerce in January and shared as much information as time allowed concerning this program. She said when the local police and fire departments finished compiling all the needed information, they sat down to make the final coordination plans and it was completed with no major issues because all of these first responders are so used to working together. She said she enjoyed sharing the information with the Chamber because community support is also important and is appreciated.            

Our school district is located five miles west of Downtown Fort Worth in a closee-knit and heavily populated community setting covering an area of approximately 5,438 square miles. It is said to be the smallest school district in the state based on square miles, but not in student numbers. The district employs 446 staff members and serves 3,335 students. It is a huge honor and accomplishment to receive such a sizeable grant to install the most effective crisis management system possible in order to protect our greatest asset, our children.

Pre-plan tactical meetings were held in the Castleberry ISD Administration Building in December. This was the second visit from representatives of Prepared Response, Inc., a crisis management planning and response company that was awarded the contract to install the Rapid Responder Crisis Management System in all of the district's schools and administration facilities. Standing is Prepared Response Facilitator Rod Staudinger, and seated beside him is Kevin Duffy, (Prepared Response Data Input). Those with their backs to the camera are River Oaks Police Sgt. Steve de Cento, River Oaks Fire Chief Bill Crews, Castleberry ISD Police Chief Jesse Rodriguez and Matilda Meador, director of TRUCE Learning Center in the Castleberry ISD. The group is viewing aerial pictures of TRUCE and other buildings in the school system. Pre-plan tactical meetings were held all through the day with principals from each campus and police and fire personnel. See you next week!