School Safety Month

Dear Winnetka Families, Staff & Community,

I am writing to share that The Winnetka Public Schools will be kicking off our third annual Safety Month starting the week of August 31st. With the school year being shifted back to starting earlier I feel it is important that we as a District start Safety Month in September to set the tone for a safe and fun-filled year.

With your support, as parents, caregivers and students, last year's Safety Month was a huge success. The goal of Safety Month is to continue to raise awareness about best practices in school safety and educate our community on on the “I Love U Guys” Standard Response Protocol (SRP) that the District began using in the 2024/2025 school year. The Standard Response Protocol includes a consistent vocabulary regarding response to a variety of unforeseen situations. For students, this provides continuity of expectations and actions throughout their educational career. For staff, this becomes a simpler process for training and drills. For first responders, the common vocabulary and protocols establish a greater predictability that persists through the duration of an incident. Students and staff will become familiarized with this Standard Response Protocol throughout the course of emergency drills and safety discussions this year.

The “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s programs for response and reunification are used in more than 50,000 schools, districts, departments, agencies, organizations and communities around the world. They are created through the research-based best practices of school administrators, psychologists, public space safety experts, families, and first responders. The standard responses are:

Each school will have a dedicated week to practice the Lockdown, Evacuate and Shelter protocols. In order to coordinate with law enforcement and our fire departments, if you have students in multiple schools they may have different weeks for their drills. Your student’s school will communicate their drill schedule with you the Friday before their week begins so that you, as a parent or caregiver, know exactly what your child will be doing. The following is the schedule for each school's week.

Greeley- August 31st - September 4th

The Skokie School- September 8th - September 11th

Hubbard Woods- September 14th - September 18th

Washburne- September 28th- October 2nd

Crow Island- October 5th - October 9th

In addition to the practicing of drills, it is important that students become familiar with the first responders in the community. Winnetka Public Schools has partnered with Winnetka Police and Fire personnel to come and greet students each Friday of Safety Month. These “High 5 Fridays” will take place at arrival on the Friday of each school's corresponding week of drills. Students will arrive to meet with police officers, fire officials, staff and special guest "high fiver" Winnie to fist bump, high five, and be warmly greeted as they start their day. This will not change arrival times or disrupt drop off in any way. Please note that our First Responders will have their vehicles parked on or around school property.

If your child would like to opt out of any of the drills please complete this form at this link by Tuesday, September 1st at noon.

The Winnetka Public Schools has made a few changes for the upcoming school year.

• Food delivery services like DoorDash and UberEats will no longer be permitted to enter our buildings, reducing the number of unidentified visitors to our campuses as well as the time it takes away from our office staff. Parents may drop off of forgotten lunches up until 10:30 a.m. on school days.

• All volunteers coming into our buildings need to complete a background check. It is important that we take every reasonable step to ensure that visitors to our campuses and anyone engaging with our students (this includes field trips) are safe to do so. The Winnetka Public Schools will be using Raptor VolunteerSafe to manage volunteer applications, approvals, and background screening requirements across the District in order to ensure safe engagement of volunteers on our campuses and with our students. All those interested in volunteering for the schools in some capacity this school year, must engage with VolunteerSafe before they are approved to volunteer. All volunteers, regardless of when you plan to volunteer in the district, will need to complete the volunteer application process and pay a $6.30 processing fee (paid during the registration). If you do not complete the Volunteer Safe application prior to September 1st you will not be cleared to volunteer in our buildings during the 26/27 school year. If you have an interest in volunteering this year, please complete the VolunteerSafe form.

Thank you for your partnership as we work together to foster best practices in safety and security in our schools.

Sincerely,

Ray Finnerty

Director of Safety & Security