Dear Parent and Guardians,
As a district, the safety of our students and staff is our primary focus during these unprecedented and challenging times. We want both students and employees to feel physically and psychologically safe and cared for in our schools, and our commitment is to assure you that we will do everything reasonably possible to protect your children against any threat that may arise while they are in our care. In order to do this, we hired a Director of Risk Management and Transportation whose main job and priority is to ensure the safety of all students while traveling to and from school and on campus.
We have a District Safety Committee with representatives
from each school level (elementary, middle, and high), key district staff
members, and representatives from local emergency management, law enforcement,
and other community stakeholders. The committee has developed goals, set
priorities, reviewed safety plans, and coordinated our resources to be prepared
to respond to any emergency.
Our safety/security plan focuses on three areas:
Effective planning, physical security, and coordination with local first
responders for potential emergency situations. This includes training our staff
and students, conducting drills to practice our plans, and strengthening our
security technology and infrastructure.
Please keep in mind our first responsibility is to make
sure our students and staff are safe. In both shelter-in-place or lockdown
situations, parents will be updated as soon as possible by an auto call, email,
and text message. It’s important for you to listen to the entire voice message
before calling the school. Email allows us to communicate more specific
information. We encourage students, staff, and parents to be vigilant and
report information if they see or hear something by using our WeTip
line at 844-760-1998. Safety is our
number one priority.
We also wanted to inform you that every school has an
Emergency Response Plan. These plans are reviewed and approved annually with
information pertaining to crisis management, procedures and protocols for
different scenarios, and resources for external assistance before, during and
after an event. Fire drills are conducted monthly and lockdown drills are
conducted semi-annually. Local law enforcement and fire personnel have also
reviewed each of our school site safety plans and provided recommendations.
As we informed you previously, entry into our schools is
restricted using access control on all main doors to campus. Parents and other
visitors coming into schools must check in at the main office using the Raptor
Visitor Management System and receive temporary identification badges before
proceeding. All adults who work with our students during and after school
require background checks, and emergency communications continue to be upgraded.
In an effort to improve our school climate, we have also
implemented the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program in
all of our schools, ensuring that our students and staff feel engaged and
connected. Additionally, to ensure timely, clear and accurate information to
our parents and families in an emergency, MUSD will use School Messenger, local
radio stations, and local newspapers, as well as our website morongousd.com. It
is critically important that family emergency contact information is up to date
each year. Parents can update contact information through the Parent Portal.
For help, contact your school.
In Summary:
- MUSD is supporting all sites to improve their
safety procedures and protocols.
- Schools work closely with local law enforcement.
- Two full-time School Resource Officers have been
assigned by the District and are present throughout the day and at school
events.
- Schools conduct emergency fire drills, shelter-in-place
drills, lockdown drills, evacuation drills, and training in first aid and CPR
procedures.
- Security monitoring devices and safety practices are continuously evaluated, tested, and updated in conjunction with the Superintendent’s vision on safety.
Morongo Unified School District also has two designated
School Resource Officers (SRO) on duty, and our comprehensive secondary schools
also have campus supervisors and safety coordinators. We certainly understand
you are looking for specific details in our communications; however, by law, we
cannot release student information or disciplinary action.
What can you do to help keep our students safe? Start by
talking to your child about safety issues and empower them to talk about their
concerns and express their feelings. We want you to be an advocate for MUSD.
Please be aware that many of the incidents resulting in the locking down of
campuses lately have involved unsubstantiated and unfounded threats against
schools posted on social media and through other means that resulted in
disruption to the campuses and the learning environment. Thus, we ask you to
get involved, support your school site on social media, and help us build a
positive school climate.
Thank you for your continued support and for entrusting
the safety of your children to us.
Respectfully,
Dr. Patricio I. Vargas, Superintendent