Brooklyn Center Community Schools experienced an internet outage in mid-September that resulted in school closures, according to an after-action report from the district.<\/p>\n
In a statement, BCCS Superintendent Carly Baker said the decision to close school \u201cwas made out of an abundance of caution\u201d for student safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have heard the feedback from our collective and are committed to improving our response protocols and communication practices should an event like this occur in the future,\u201d Baker said. \u201cWe have learned incredibly valuable lessons in how we must handle school closures when they occur during or at the beginning of the school day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baker also shared three commitments she and other district leadership have made in light of recent closures: audit and improve district infrastructure; clear internal communications within the district; and clear external communications with the BCCS community.<\/p>\n
Baker said the district has already identified ways to run school programming without the internet and while also communicating across BCCS buildings in the event of an emergency.<\/p>\n
The district is also working to improve communications systems to \u201censure that all staff and parents receive emergency closure communications\u201d in light of the recent outage. \u201cUpon finishing our after-action procedures, we found several instances where only one of two custodial parents\/guardians received district communications,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n
Clear internal communications between district administrators and site staff<\/p>\n
Baker noted the district has identified communication gaps between administrative teams and transportation vendors. She said those gaps will be addressed in case a similar issue arises in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be redefining the responsibilities of all of our employee roles in relation to communicating with families and supporting students throughout the closure process to ensure we have a clear plan of action should this happen again,\u201d Baker said. \u201cWe will utilize a clear way to check and confirm students’ arrival and dismissal plans that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of the district’s plan is to ensure BCCS messaging has clear subject lines. If announcing a school closure, for instance, the subject line would indicate closure dates and what, if any, immediate action families should take.<\/p>\n