SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz County school leaders need to update their emergency plans annually, make sure schools have emergency supplies and make sure school staff members are aware of emergency plans, a Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury report concluded Tuesday.
The civil grand jury also released a separate report that advised the County Board of Supervisors to reconvene the Domestic Violence Commission, which has not met since 2013. The reports are the fifth and sixth released by the 2015-16 civil grand jury.
The civil grand jury said that the 10 kindergarten to 12th grade school districts in the county varied widely on the availability of emergency plans online and in print. The grand jury recommended that each school have a print copy of plans in case of a power outage from an earthquake, fire or flood.
“It’s a safety issue for the students and faculty at the schools,” said Jeff Palsgaard, foreman for the civil grand jury. “It’s good to know all the different situations that come up and respond appropriately to those situations.”
State law requires K-12 schools to have comprehensive school safety plans for natural disasters and criminal activity. The plans include evacuation routes and other protocols to keep students and staff safe. The Santa Cruz County Office of Education also has an emergency response manual that leaders at each school can tailor to the school.
“The plans are to be updated yearly, be readily available to the public at each school and be forwarded to each district office or the Santa Cruz County Office of Education,” according to the grand jury report.
In recent months, civil grand jurors visited the 10 school district offices and surveyed the 72 public schools in the county to see if their emergency plans were available and updated. All the schools had a safety plans, but many were outdated, according to the report.
Some schools had emergency plans easily accessible online while others were hard to find or unavailable. The four-page grand jury report did not grade each school or school district for its compliance level.
At Pajaro Valley Unified School District, the grand jurors’ unannounced visit in February sparked a renewed effort to improve emergency plans, administrators said.
Rich Beuse, the school district’s director of purchasing and safety, said Tuesday that he has been delivering hard copies of emergency plans to the district’s 34 schools since he realized some schools didn’t have them.
“It’s a work in progress,” Beuse said.
He said he remains hesitant to post each school’s evacuation plans online because a gunman or someone else with violent plans could access them. There is no legal requirement to post the schools’ emergency plans online, according to the grand jury.
Beuse also noted that most of the district’s 1,000 classrooms do not have emergency supplies such as spare food and water. The law does not require that each classroom have such supplies, but leaders at Valencia Elementary in Aptos are interested in getting supplies such as emergency blankets and portable toilets, Beuse said.
“We’re working on a standardized kit,” Beuse said. He said he will weigh the cost of the kits and how often they are replaced.
Leaders from Santa Cruz City Schools and Live Oak School District were not available for comment on the grand jury report Tuesday.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE REPORT
The grand jury also released a separate report Tuesday that called on the Domestic Violence Commission to reconvene. It has not met since 2013.
The commission is supposed to advise the Board of Supervisors on domestic violence legislation, increase coordination between courts and agencies that serve domestic violence victims and promote prevention and intervention of domestic violence.
There had been 28 commission members, but the grand jury advised the group to restart with fewer members so it could reach a quorum and hold effective meetings. The grand jury also called for the reinstatement of Domestic Violence Court. It streamlined civil and criminal domestic violence cases and had been effective, according to the grand jury.
The Board of Supervisors has 90 days to respond to the report.
The civil grand jury investigates local governments, special districts and schools. Previous reports in 2015 and 2016 included transparency problems in Soquel Union Elementary School District, problems with the Santa Cruz County Mental Health Advisory Board, Santa Cruz County retirement costs and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office asset forfeiture program.
May 24, 2016
Santa Cruz Sentinel
By Stephen Baxter
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