District details emergency communications plan: confirm before you share, update every ~30 minutes, and do not drive to a scene

Unionville‑Chadds Ford’s communications team presented its emergency incident communications plan on May 13, describing how the district will coordinate with incident commanders and public‑safety partners to provide accurate updates during school incidents.

Communications Director Ms. LaRoya said the district’s PIO will only release information confirmed by the incident commander and emphasized a balance between speed and accuracy. The office plans to use pre‑written template messages for web, email, text and social channels, and to repeat updates roughly every 30 minutes or whenever new confirmed information is available. Ms. LaRoya said that once information is public it is difficult to retract, citing lessons from recent incident reviews.

She offered direct guidance to families during an incident: do not call the school (to avoid clogging phone lines), do not visit the school (to avoid interfering with responders), and await official updates via the district website, email and text. Staff said staging and reunification areas would be used in incidents and that phone calls could be redirected to district staff answering from central locations. Technology staff told the board they were not concerned about website capacity in such events.

Ms. LaRoya also described that press conferences in serious incidents are typically led by the lead law‑enforcement agency or district attorney, and the district will coordinate its messaging with those agencies. She said the district will continue to improve opt‑in rates for text messages and monitor families’ communication preferences.

The communications update concluded with a lighter recap of centennial events: board documents show net proceeds from a centennial gala and related activities totaled $27,021, with distributions to scholarships and the education foundation noted in the board packet.