Each month during school hours, SES practices emergency response drills (fire drills, lock down, lockout, earthquake). At the end of March, we are going to practice a reunification with parents and students. This drill is to practice what would happen if we needed families to come pick their students up from school due to an emergency situation (weather, earthquake, lockdown, etc.).

Guiding Questions:

• How will you reunite with your family immediately following a disaster?
• Do all the members of your family know the plan?
• Are your emergency contacts up-to-date with Wende in the main office?(Check your emergency contacts in ParentVue in the Student Info section. If they are out of date, email Wende at wjohnso2@pps.net. If you need help with your ParentVue login, stop in the SES office.)

For this practice reunification, we will have parents/guardians check in at stations that will be set up in the front hallway. Those picking up students will need to show a photo ID and be on the student’s emergency contact list.

Process:

• Come in the front main door only..
• Find the table corresponding to the first letter of your student’s last name.
• Fill out the PPS reunification form.
• Hand form and your photo ID to the person at the table.
• Wait in the auditorium while a runner fetches your student.
• Sign-out with your student(s) from tables in the auditorium.
• Leave with your student(s) directly to the outdoors from the auditorium.

OPTING OUT: This is an important drill which will inform us all on how best to get reunited with our kids in case of an emergency. We are hoping that everyone will participate. That said, we understand that taking time off work is not an option for many people. If this is the case, please consider sending one of your emergency contacts to pick-up your child so that they can practice, too.

If you still want your child to walk home on the day of the drill or if you have other circumstances (after school activities, etc.), please contact the office to let us know.

CAMPFIRE: We have been working with Campfire so the transition to Campfire is as smooth as possible. If your child will not be in Campfire that day because you plan on participating in the drill, please let Campfire know.

The onset of winter weather, intensified attention on earthquake preparedness and the tragedy of the Umpqua Community College shooting this fall are good reasons to review the systems PPS uses to communicate with families in the event of inclement weather and other emergencies.

Please read this document to be sure you’ve opted in to all the available channels.

The Multnomah County Office of Emergency Management presents workshops that will introduce you to Earthquake Preparedness. Please note the locations and times for workshops and sign up soon, as there is limited spaces at many of the libraries. Then, bring that expertise you gain back to your homes, your neighbors and your neighborhoods. To see when these workshops are taking place, please visit: https://multcolib.org/events/earthquake-preparedness

Dear SES Families,

Our hearts go out to the people of Nepal, digging out from the magnitude-7.8 earthquake that struck on Saturday, April 25. Sadly, the death toll continues to rise, and there is so much to rebuild. In addition to absorbing the news of this tragedy, it is a call to action for us as Oregonians living on the Cascadia Subduction zone.

There are some basic and essential things you can do to help ensure you and your family’s safety and resilience in and following an earthquake:

• Practice earthquake drills—DC-HOT: Drop, Cover and Hold On Tight. Your kids practice this in earthquake drills at school. If you haven’t practiced an earthquake drill yourself, ask your child to teach you the basics of DC-HOT.
• Make a Family Reunification Plan. At the bottom of this page are some questions to help you do so.
• Be sure that your children’s schools have emergency contact information not only for you as the parent or guardian, but for backup adults who could take care of your children if you are separated for any length of time.
• Have a pair of hard-soled shoes and a flashlight under every bed in your home.
• Water and sanitation are two of the biggest challenges following a crippling natural disaster. Store water at home and plan for an emergency sanitation system. (A 2-bucket composting system is the best. Second choice would be lining a bucket with plastic bags which you can then tie up to store human refuse.)
• Know how to shut off the gas and water to your home if there is a leak.

Thank you so much for doing what you can to help make your family and your community safe. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about how you can help our PTSA’s Safety and Resilience Committee’s work, or any other questions you might have.

Dana Buhl
danabuhl@gmail.com

Holly Cook
cookholly@gmail.com

Family Reunification Planning:

Developing a communication and reunification plan starts with conversations and involves relationships with those around us. Here are questions to help start those conversations.

• What is your primary reunification site? What’s the secondary site if the primary site is unsafe or unreachable? Do you have a location to leave notes for each other if you have to leave before everyone can reconvene?
• Do you or a family member cross any bridges to get to work or school? If you cannot get back home right away because bridges are down, where will you go? Can you stay at your work with a buddy, or do you know someone who lives nearby where you can go? If you have a buddy, or if you plan to go to a home nearby, do they and your family know your plan?
• Do you have an emergency contact person for your children who lives near their school? Who can pick up your children and shelter them if you are unable to get to them right away? Does the school have that emergency contact information? Does your child know that plan? Does the emergency contact person know what’s expected?
• Do you have an out-of-state contact to help with reunification? (This might be necessary if cell lines are down, but telephone landlines are usable.) Does that contact person know they are the contact and does he or she have vital information about everyone in the family?
• Who in your neighborhood will you check on after a disaster, and who will check on you? Have you talked with neighbors about developing a block plan?

On Thursday, October 18th at 10:18am, Sunnyside will participate in the Great ShakeOut, a national event to practice earthquake safety. Please take a moment to learn about the Drop, Cover, Hold On skill by going to the link. Drop, Cover and Hold On will save lives in an earthquake. We’ll be practicing at school. Don’t forget to practice at home and at work!

On Saturday, October 6th, twenty-one Middle School students were certified in CPR and First Aid!  We had a fabulous training with a focused and engaged group of students.  Many thanks to our generous donor, the Dr. Ellen Hosiosky Fund of the Gorge Community Foundation, and to Rick Lacey and Laure Nebrija for organizing and teaching the course!

*Great News about the SES Chimney*

If you’ve been by SES this week, you may have seen the big chimney coming down. This is great news for seismic safety at SES, and many other schools in the PPS district. In February of this year, the Portland school board<http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/02/unable_to_pass_a_bond_portland.html> approved a loan to convert oil burning boilers to natural gas furnaces at 47 PPS sites, including Sunnyside. Because the gas furnaces aren’t as dirty, the chimney doesn’t need to be as tall, so the SES chimney has been lowered to 2′ with a 4′ steel pipe protruding. The chimney has been one of the bigger concerns for the Rock-n-Roll Committee (aka Safety and Resilience Committee) as we’ve reviewed the building for seismic safety. Now we have a lot fewer bricks to worry about!

Yay!