At their final meeting of the school year on June 6, the Farmingdale School Board of Education adopted the School Emergency Operations Plan, which outlines safety issues to be used districtwide.

The plan, designed to explain how members of the district should operate in the event of emergencies affecting students, faculty, staff and facilities, was created as a supplement to existing policies. It was created to provide staff members with a means of knowing how to enact current policies quickly and effectively.

Under the plan, if the district finds itself involved in an incident affecting more than just one school, staff members are urged to determine overall response objectives, select response strategies, ensure joint application of tactical activities and maximize the use of available resources. This concept was designed to ensure that all those who find themselves in an emergency situation know how to handle the incident in a similar manner.

If a faculty or staff member discovers an incident which requires immediate attention, they should take action, determine the level of threat, and advise a superior of the problem. If all involved in the problem take similar precautions and use the same methods to help solve the problem, the safety of other faculty, staff members and students is assured.

The safety plan also asks anyone who finds himself in a hazardous situation to first determine the level of threat. The plan puts levels of threat into three categories: monitor, standby and emergency.

If a level I situation should occur, determined by whether or not immediate danger exists, those who find themselves in such a situation should "monitor" or observe the situation to determine how threatening it is and report it as soon as possible. For example, if a minor building system problem should occur, there is no immediate threat to students or faculty but the issue needs to be looked into and should be reported.

In a level II situation, when potential risk exists or will soon occur, district personnel should be ready to act when necessary.

In a level III situation, where students and district personnel find themselves in imminent danger and school facilities are at risk, immediate action is necessary. Such a situation would include a fire occurring in one of the schools or an accident involving students and/or faculty members.

The safety plan outlines various approaches which can be used in the event of a critical incident. There are six general options which can be used, including canceling school on a specific day by notifying students, faculty, staff, transportation and facility managers that school will not be open. Other options include early dismissal, if there is a need to vacate buildings while school is in session; 'shelter-in-place', when it is found that students and personnel would be safer if they remained indoors; lockdown, which requires the ability to quickly secure classrooms and doors to protect those inside; evacuation, the quick removal of all students and personnel from the school building; and relocation, similar to evacuation in that schools would have to be vacated and students and personnel would be relocated to a safer environment.

The plan also outlines what personnel members should do in the event that they discover an incident, including determining which authorities need to be contacted, notifying a superior and taking action to protect those involved. In addition, the plan explains the procedure for 'duck and cover', in the event of a catastrophic event.

Under the safety plan, the district appointed personnel members who are responsible for carrying out directives of an Incident Coordinator (IC), a person responsible for the overall coordination of a situation. In Farmingdale, the Primary IC appointed was Superintendent Gerard Dempsey and the Backup IC appointed was Assistant Superintendent Barbara Horsley. In addition, an Incident Management Team (IMT) was created to carry out various functions which may be necessary in the event of an emergency. Each member of the IMT has a specific duty in the event of emergencies and/or hazardous situations and numbers where they can be reached are given to other members of the team.