By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
An incident in the Hoisington High School parking lot on Oct. 2 highlighted the importance of USD 431's ability to disseminate information to students, parents, and first responders quickly. Superintendent Patrick Crowdis updated the board of education about the purchase of an emergency management system during Monday's meeting.
"We are going to have an emergency management system in place sometime in the spring," he said. "With the drill that we did with Clara Barton, it just brought up some things that we felt like we needed to put something into place.
The district is currently looking at systems like CrisisGo and Kokomo Cases. CrisisGo's flagship product, Safety iResponse, would allow district staff and first responders to quickly and easily communicate with one another during an emergency. The system would include real-time alerting, incident management, and parent notification. Crowdis said it is a matter of finding a good fit for the district financially and practically.
"We're not doing this to upset anybody or traumatize anybody," he said. "We're doing it to prepare in the event of something happening. We hope that it never happens, but in the event that something happens, we want everybody to be prepared. At this point in time, we administratively do not feel like we are as prepared as we want to be. We want to put some tools into place to make that happen."
Crowdis said sending photos via text messages after the Oct. 2 incident, which involved a suspicious man who approached two female students, was not effective or efficient. An emergency management system could drastically cut down on the time it takes to notify first responders and parents across a variety of platforms.