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Announcer: Welcome to Mondays with Maria, presented by ADDITION Financial Credit Union. Here's OCPS Superintendent, Dr. Maria Vazquez.
Maria Vazquez: Hi everyone. I have a few new guests with me today. Lou Alexis is the director of the Office of Emergency Management here at Orange County Public Schools, and Bob Boyd is the assistant director. Welcome, gentlemen.
Loubert and Robert: Thanks for having us. Thank you for having us.
Maria Vazquez: It's, it's a pleasure to have you. So, at this time of year parents, especially with what's happened in the recent weeks, really concerned about safety and security of students, you know, of staff, and so there's a lot that goes into being prepared for an emergency in our schools, and you head this team up that makes it all work. So, do you want to talk a little bit about the preparedness that takes place in Orange County Public Schools?
Loubert Alexis: Absolutely. we provide training on a variety of topics. Anything from severe weather to active assailant procedures to bomb threats. So we provide these training, but the most important part of the training is exercising the ability to practice what was learned. And we couldn't do it without our, our partners in Orange County. Our sheriff's office, Orlando pd, and I'm sure you remember in 2000 three, we did a full-scale active assailant exercise. And then more recently over the summer 2024, we did a full scale reunification exercise. And that speaks to the commitment and partnership of OCPS and the overall public safety community in Orlando.
Maria Vazquez: Yeah. And those exercises are eye-opening for everyone that's participating, both individuals that are OCPS staff and then for, as you mentioned, the different municipalities and organizations that assist us in the event there is an emergency. Absolutely. So there is so much planning and coordination that's involved in this, right. As you mentioned, these agencies, the, the different departments within our district. So Bob, can you speak a little bit to that aspect?
Robert Boyd: Yeah, so we handle both our planning and our coordination at a district kind of global level and also at a site or very local level. So when it comes to the district planning, we have some very global plans such as the comprehensive emergency management plan, our student reunification plan. Those can apply to all schools into all sorts of incidents, which we might need to use them for. When it comes to our local level for planning at our schools, our administrative sites, we have something called our emergency procedures manuals. These manuals provide very detailed guidance on how to handle any incident which they might face. When it comes to coordination at the district level, we have something called our district incident management Team. At our local levels, we have emergency response teams, and these teams are both trained to coordinate with first responders and district personnel to resolve incidents as soon as we can.
Maria Vazquez: And I get asked all the time by parents, community members, I'm sure you do as well, they want to know details, right? They want to know the specifics and understand them. They want to make sure that their children, that their loved ones are safe, but we don't release all of the, of the details. Right. We keep many of those things confidential and that's because we want to keep everybody safe. And so sometimes there's angst, but we can assure our, our community, our public, that we do have very specific protocols in place, procedures where individuals have been trained so that people are safe. Correct?
Loubert and Robert: That's correct.
Maria Vazquez: Yes. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about some of the standard response protocols, right? Because families we communicate with families through Connect Orange, through text messages, through email whenever there's like an incident and they might hear some of the terms that we use as part of our standards response protocol. So can you talk a little bit about that to our families?
Loubert Alexis: Absolutely. It is a big part of our plan which is why we have the standard response protocol. Many families and guardians may have heard of the terms hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate and shelter. Just to give you two example, when it comes to a secure, when a secure is call, that means there's police activity in the area within the general vicinity of the school. So when that's called, what that means for the school is that every student that's outside of the walls of the school are brought inside. We continue business as usual, they're educating students and no one will be allowed on campus unless you're public safety, until the all clear is given to lift is secure. Another example is hold. Hold can be called if we need to hold students temporarily and staff temporarily and, and their locations for students in the classroom or, or staff general areas. And that's when if there's something like a medical emergency that's happening on campus that we need to attend to or perhaps there's a large spill that needs to be cleaned up. So, we temporarily ask everyone to remain where they are until the issue is resolved.
Maria Vazquez: Okay. Thank you. So, this time of year we are always tuning in because of the severe weather that we sometimes face during the months of September, October and November. And so Bob, as our chief meteorologist in residence, you have a lot of expertise in that area. So would you mind talking a little bit about the planning as it relates to severe weather?
Robert Boyd: Yes. one of the key pieces of our severe weather planning is we partner very well with a National Weather Service down in Melbourne. We've actually got a storm ready recognition for the district that just shows that we have a higher level of preparedness for those kinds of events. That was done in partnership with the Weather Service. Within the district proper, we do two severe weather drills every year. One of those drills will be in the fall and one of those drills will be in the spring in court in conjunction with Florida to severe Weather Awareness Week. Those drills are just a test to make sure that all our staff are prepared for any events that they might face severe weather-wise and they know what to do in those incidents.
Maria Vazquez: Yeah. So I can't speak enough about the importance of the, of the drills that we have throughout the year so that we are prepared. And so for families, a community that's out there for them to understand that with these different protocols, our staff is trained and so they know what actions to take when a certain protocol is, is released. And so I am so thankful that we have an amazing team in our district that helps us with preparedness and actually execution if there is an event. And then after the, the protocols that go into place, if it's severe weather, the cleanup and making sure that we're ready to open schools up again if we had to close them. And in the event that there's been some type of emergency at a school, really taking a look at that particular event, analyzing it, seeing any lessons learned, correct.
Maria Vazquez: That's correct, yes. Alright, well, on the screen now, you'll see the standard response protocols because it's so important for our families to know what they mean. Our schools have these posted across their entire campus, so students, staff, even visitors, know what they are in the event. One or more of those protocols are called while they are there. If you have any questions, you can always speak with your principal, the school resource officer, or even a member of the School's CERT team. Thank you for joining me today. There's great information for our families. Be sure to like, follow and subscribe for more Mondays with Maria. To hear more on this topic, go to the Mondays with Maria Podcast wherever you get your podcast. Thank you for watching, and we'll see you next week.
Announcer: For an extended conversation on today's topic, listen to the Mondays with Maria podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts. Mondays with Maria is presented by ADDITION Financial Credit Union. Count us in for every step of your financial journey. Learn more at Additionfi.com. For more OCPS news and information, visit TheSlice.ocps.net. I'm your announcer. Kaleb Priester, a senior at Jones High School. Thanks for watching and have a great week.