Safety Week!

The beginning of the school year is filled with developing routines. It may seem like a pretty simple thing, but teaching kindergarten kids how to 'line up' is quite humorous to watch! And going through the lunch line? Yikes! Yet, slowly but surely they get it figured out and before you know it, it becomes second nature. It's all about practicing and developing routines. 

Some of the routines that we practice at the beginning of the school year are focused on our emergency response systems. These include fire drills, tornado drills, and bus evacuation procedures. These drills are all about speed. How quickly can we evacuate the building in the event of a fire? How quickly can we get all the high school kids into the storm shelter or the elementary kids in the basement? It has become a bit of a competition between the attendance centers to see who can execute the evolution the quickest! Bus evacuations are not so much about speed, but rather a demonstration of where the safety exits are located, and practicing exiting out the back door of the school bus in a safe manner. Our practice is to conduct these drills twice each semester, in compliance with Iowa Code.

Ove the past two weeks, we have been preparing for 'safety week', which will be next week. This is when we'll take time to have age appropriate discussions and drills with our students on what our processes and procedures are in place in the event we have to execute a mass evacuation. We'll go over evacuation routes, different scenarios, and the ALICE procedures that have been in place at Hudson for a number of years. For our younger students, teachers will be guided by the book, I'm Not Scared...I'm Prepared. 

Now, most of you had the opportunity to see our plan in action in January when we had to evacuate the campus due to a natural gas leak adjacent to the high school. Because we had a plan in place with evacuation routes, primary relocation sites and secondary relocation sites, the whole evolution unfolded pretty well. For a refresher on what happened that day, please check out my blog article from January 15: When Theory Meets Practice. 

As Mr. Bell stated at a staff meeting last week, that evacuation went very well. But, he also cautioned us to remember that the circumstances at play that afternoon were about as perfect as one could anticipate. At the same time, the process that unfolded that day helped us recognize areas where we can improve our plan. Those improvements have been incorporated into our plan. 

I used to think that executing drills: be it tornado, fire, bus evacuation, or ALICE, were merely checking a box to ensure compliance. Once upon a time I believed that spending money on safety equipment, supplies for the buckets, and wayfinding signs for our reunification site was money better spent on instructional supplies. I thought we were spending a lot of time and effort during our administrative team meetings planning for the very unlikely event that something was going to happen. I no longer feel that way.

You can be assured that we take school safety and security incredibly seriously. Our drills are conducted in a manner to evaluate them for flaws, look for ways to improve the process, and test the systems. Next week is safety week, where students will discuss our ALICE procedures. If you have any questions or concerns about our safety plans or procedures, please don't hesitate to reach out. 

Striking a High Note: Uniting for New Marching Band Uniforms

I love it when a plan comes together and our parent organizations join forces. There is a realization that we all wear the same jersey, share the same shade of blue, and belong to a community that supports our students across a vast array of activities.

Believe it or not, it's not like this everywhere. In some schools these activities are pitted against one another and positioning for precious resources can get adversarial. I have never had that feeling here. In fact, quite the opposite. There is genuine support and admiration for our students across all activity disciplines in our school. And when asked to help, we step up for one another. It is incredibly gratifying.

This willingness to rally together isn't just about funding a project; it's about honoring the shared experiences that define high school life. That spirit of community support is something that I hold close to my heart, largely because some of my fondest high school memories come from my time in the music department. From the early morning rehearsals for All-State to the pep band on Friday evenings, it really was the 'best of times'. Perhaps that is one of the reasons I chose music as my vocation when I first became an educator. I wanted kids to have the same kind of experiences that I did when I was in school. In that regard, I do hope that I have succeeded. At the same time though, I have to try really hard not to 'put my thumb on the scale' when it comes to the needs and wants of our music department here in Hudson. Whether or not that has been a fair position will be for others to determine. 

During my time in high school, marching band was a pretty big deal. I loved the precision of the marching, the power of the brass, and the crispness of a well trained battery. To this day, whenever I have the chance to attend a college football game in the fall, one of my favorite parts is the halftime show. 

When we hired Mrs. Davis as our band director, I knew we would be well positioned to reconstitute our marching band program. As someone with experience working with the Panther Marching band, it was a great opportunity to provide our students with a memorable high school experience. Those early years, we really had to start from scratch. We didn't have all the right equipment: marching sousaphones, battery instrumentation, or even flag poles. Slowly but surely we were able to add to the inventory, but the biggest missing piece was marching band uniforms. Fortunately we were able to acquire uniforms from a school district not too far away that was changing out their look. We jumped at the chance to get them! They were not quite right, but close enough? 

After Mrs. Davis left, I was clear that her successor had to not only sustain our marching band program, but to grow it and move it to the next level. Luckily, Mrs. Ramsey was the right person to accept my challenge! A bit less than a year ago she approached me with a slight problem: the 'hand me down' uniforms were on borrowed time. They were starting to fall apart. Also, it was becoming more and more apparent that the blue wasn't the right color of blue, and the black? Well black isn't even a 'close cousin' when it comes to our color palette. 

The conversation about new marching band uniforms had begun. Probably a bit later than any of us would have liked, but the reason we hadn't had that conversation was marching band uniforms are a very heavy lift. But I was all for it! Thanks to the hard work of the music AND athletic boosters we are ready to place the order. Students are now being fitted for the uniforms and we will have them in time for the next marching band season. Yes, it is still a year away but it will take some time to build these uniforms. 

Of the roughly $35,000 needed for these uniforms, the music boosters have raised $20,000 and the athletic boosters have contributed $10,000. That leaves a balance of just about $5,000 to get us over the finish line. Please consider joining me in contributing to this goal. Anything we raise in excess of this goal will be earmarked for our yet to be determined Color Guard uniforms. If you would like to help please select a sponsorship level by scanning the QR code in the graphic.