School District ISD 318 reviews priorities of the District Threat & Emergency Response Team

At the Monday, Aug. 5, regular school board meeting, ISD 318 members went over the priorities of the District Threat & Emergency Response Team.

District Threat & Emergency Response Team

Superintendent Matt Grose said that this meeting was planned to talk about the work they have done with the District Threat & Emergency Response team. The district makes sure that the plans align with their priorities. The DTERT team is made up of district employees, law enforcement, community experts/liaisons, and adhoc matter experts.

The purpose of the team is to improve safety and security for students, staff, and families. The district team meets monthly. One reason the team was created was to create consistency between schools in the same district so that the same protocols are being followed building by building.

They made five out of their six priorities for the 2023-2024 school year, including finalizing consistent threat assessment, putting the reunification process in place, ensuring that all sites have crisis plans in place, a training plan was put into place for all staff, and solid plans were put in place for events and activities. The priority that was missed was equipment related and had to do with radios and communications protocol.

For 2024-2025 there are more priorities to hit. This includes but is not limited to: developing training plans, developing a district website for the DTERT/staff Crisis information and adding training videos, setting expectations about Nav360 implementation, and more.

Effective and Efficient Systems

Nathan Morton, ICS Project Manager, spoke about the high school and the projects that are going on this summer, due to be done before school start.

“We’re on budget and we’re on schedule,” Morton joked, referencing the phrase that is commonly said during the summer.

According to Morton, they have set the air handling units on the fifth floor and the duct work is now being connected, the fourth floor is being carpeted, the third floor is a week and a half ahead of schedule and maintenance staff was able to move in, first floor is also ahead, the second floor “is the big one with the cafeterias,” Morton said. This is phase 2 of the high school project.

The minutes for the 7/22/24 school board meeting were approved. Donations and gifts were accepted for April, May, and June 2024.

The consent agenda was approved.

The board approved the resolution relating to the election of School Board members and calling the School District General Election on Nov. 5, 2024. There are three open board seats, each serving a four year term. The last day to adopt the Resolution calling a General Election was increased from 74 days prior to the election to 84 days prior to the election, which is August 13, 2024. The last day for candidates to withdraw is August 15, 2024.

Candidate names will be published on the required notice of General Election at least 14 days prior to the election. Names are also available upon request from the School District 318 Elections Clerk after August 15, 2024.

The board approved Sandstrom’s as the dairy provider for the Food and Nutrition program. Pan-O-Gold was selected as the breads product provider for the Food and Nutrition program. Upper Lakes Foods has been selected as the primary vendor of food and supplies. Sandstrom’s, Pan-O-Gold, and Upper Lakes Foods were the only responders to the sealed bid and RFP process.

During the board reports, Director Pat Medure mentioned student achievement and the training that he participated in, MSBA, and that “every decision we make at the board should have student achievement at the front of it,” Medure said.

Superintendent Grose said that most of the staffing positions are filled. He had a call last week about the Bigfork Solar project and he said “they were pretty optimistic and excited about what we’re working on out there.” This project would be entirely covered by a grant and would be at no cost to the school district.

The Safe Route to School Grant was received for RJEMS for the drop-off system. Grose said that they are in the final plans for it and that it separates the bus and parent traffic better than it does now.