Duluth Public Schools details reunification plan and Standard Response Protocol; district to expand training and preparedness

Danette Siebel, principal on special assignment for safety and crisis response, briefed the board on district revisions to crisis planning, the district's adoption of the Standard Response Protocol (I Love U Guys foundation), and new reunification procedures the district is training staff to use.
Siebel said the district has formed a core planning team that includes the district communications officer (Adele Wellens), the mental-health coordinator (Todd McGowan) and safety staff. The district will use the PREPARE crisis-prevention and intervention training framework (School Psychology model) to help sites assess prevention, mitigation and recovery steps and to standardize site Emergency Operations Committee practices.
The district described its practice definitions to the board: hold (clear hallways and continue instruction), secure (keep building occupants inside and control entry), lockdown (lock doors, lights off, out of sight), shelter (weather protection) and evacuation. Reunification is distinct from evacuation: when a site cannot return students to the building, the district will move students to a separate reunification site where staff will follow a structured check-in, ID verification and release process to reconnect students to authorized guardians.
Key features Siebel described include a prepackaged reunification kit at district headquarters, colored ID cards for families to fill out, privacy and mental-health rooms at reunification sites, coordination with police and county emergency responders, and a four-hour target to reconnect students with families (Siebel noted the four-hour goal is ambitious and that some incidents in other districts have taken much longer).
Siebel and other staff emphasized training and staff supports: they will train site teams in PREPARE during professional development, conduct reunification exercises and ask staff volunteers to report to reunification sites in an incident. The district said volunteers should disclose if they are unable to perform a requested role; staff with close personal involvement in an incident will be excused from duties. Siebel said special-education students with complex medical or behavioral needs will be the last to leave buildings and the first to exit reunification sites, with case managers and special services staff coordinating their safe transport and required equipment.
Communications: the district said it is streamlining contact protocols—sites should contact their director first and avoid multiple parallel requests to district leaders; the district has a crisis-communication text group and will issue frequent public updates to set expectations for families. Police SROs (school resource officers) will serve as advisors and first-line contacts for safety planning but will not accompany reunification inside the family-checkout area, Siebel said.
Board members asked how the district could engage board members in planning; Siebel said the district-level Emergency Operations Committee is large (30'30 members) and meetings will be posted; she offered to include board members as observers on meeting invites. Board members also raised prevention questions, including threat-assessment processes and the district's emphasis on safe firearm storage messaging; Siebel said the PREPARE model addresses prevention and that district communications will reiterate safe-storage messaging when appropriate.
No formal board action or vote was recorded; the district said it will continue to develop training, run exercises and coordinate with community mental-health partners and law enforcement to refine its procedures.