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How will families be notified of emergency situations?
In the event of a Secured Campus, the school will use our blackboard connect phone call system to notify families that the situation occurred. These phone calls will be made the same day as the incident and will typically be delivered at the end of the day.
WCSD will post notification of any Secured Campus on our website and will post updates at regular intervals on our active emergency page.
In the event of a Lockdown, WCSD staff will send an initial notification phone call to parents within 15 minutes of the lockdown being declared. Updates will be issued hourly via the Blackboard Connect system until the final notification that the Lockdown has been lifted. The school will work with students, counselors, and families to recover from the Lockdown situation in a manner that is appropriate for the situation.
It is important to note that delivery of phone calls can take the system up to 30 minutes to deliver and some phone calls will be delivered sooner than others.
We encourage you to discuss questions, concerns, and recommendations about a Lockdown with your school’s administrative staff after the incident has been resolved.
We also encourage you to bring questions, concerns and recommendations about how information was shared with parents to WCSD staff. Please send this feedback to WCSD_communcations@washoeschools.net. We work hard to review every situation and make improvements and we need to hear from you. This very web page was created following a community suggestion.
Here are a few tips on how to remain informed of the latest developments during an emergency.
- Frequently check the WCSD Emergency Information page.
- Follow social media of first responder agencies and public officials. (WCSD, Fire department, Police, County government)
- Tune in to the reports of our media partners.
- Approach any report that is based on “Police scanner chatter” with skepticism as these reports are frequently misheard or based on unverified initial information.
- Check with your school’s office before an emergency occurs and verify that WCSD has the correct contact information for your family.