The Elida School Board is making sure teachers and first responders can be fully prepared if an emergency of any kind were to occur inside or around the schools.
School board members heard from NaviGate at their meeting Tuesday night. NaviGate is a program that puts schools blueprints, floor plans and emergency plans on a secure website so teachers, administrators and emergency responders can log on and find out what to do in an emergency.
The system will help emergency contacts locate an issue and address it quickly. If there's a gas leak , fire, life flight landing situation, lockdown and all the parts of the school will be shown online so staff and first responders can act quickly. This system will help Elida Schools develop their safety protocols required of them by the state. Fire alarms, gas shut offs, fire and tornado drill information will all be on the database.
If there were to be a tactical situation law enforcement would be able to log on and see exactly how the room is laid out, how many windows, exits and so on. The program has already been approved by the superintendent because it is below the $25,000 threshold.
Jason Bowers, President, Elida Board of Education said, "It can also be used by the local fire department if they get a call to the building. They can pinpoint what room it is in. As they're responding they know what part of the building they can go to. It can also be used for law enforcement if we happen to have a intruder in the building they can say what area of the building it is. They can get an idea of what rooms and everything are around there that the person might be hiding in or that they need to check on."
Superintendent Joel Hatfield asked the board to pass approval for a new H-VAC system for the middle school. Improvements are necessary to address a potentially unsafe mold problem caused by poor cooling and humidity monitoring due to an outdated system.
Bowers said, “The middle school HVAC system is original to the building it is antiquated so some stuff needs to be updated on it. That's basically what we're doing now to update controls so we have more control of operating the system as far as heating and cooling."
The superintendent wants to get quotes from local contractors. The project is estimated at about $75,000. The school wants to get started in 3-4 weeks and finish by August 1st.
