Los Altos, MV districts included
Students in five school districts in Los Altos, Mountain View, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale will benefit from a $480,715 federal emergency response and crisis management grant that will address prevention, mitigation, preparation, response and recovery procedures and training for a wide variety of emergencies, including fire, earthquake and potentially violent incidents.
School principals and PTAs were involved in the 18-month grant-writing process. The goal is uniform response to emergencies in all five participating districts, Los Altos School District Superintendent Tim Justus said.
The grant was awarded to the Silicon Valley Safe Schools Consortium, which took the lead in developing one of the first multiagency, multicity coordinated responses for prevention through recovery activities involving schools.
Santa Clara Unified School District will coordinate the grant on behalf of Los Altos School District, Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, Mountain View-Whisman School District and Sunnyvale School District, as well as for private, including sectarian, schools in each district. More than 75 schools will be involved in the project.
In addition to public and private schools, the Silicon Valley Safe Schools Consortium includes police departments, fire departments and offices of emergency services from the four participating cities. Other consortium partners are Santa Clara County Public Health, Santa Clara County Mental Health and district parent associations and employee organizations, including the California Teachers Association and the California School Employees Association.
The 18-month grant, one of 94 funded nationwide, will provide funds for expanding joint emergency response and crisis management protocols and standardized training between schools and first responders. The grant also underwrites basic emergency supplies for each school site. The schools have received specialized software to maintain information about whom to contact at each site in case of an emergency and funding to help keep the database up-to-date.
Parents will be given information on the procedures the various agencies provide for schools to keep their children safe in emergencies. Parents and community members will also learn how they can support the school in emergency preparedness and response.
