FACILITATING TTX’S IN A K12 SETTING Mike McHargue, Director, Lake County Office of Emergency Management Valerie MacDonald, Emergency Manager, Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office Brad Stiles, Emergency Response Outreach Consultant, Colorado School Safety Resource Center

Background • Lake County School District [R-1] – 4 Schools: Pre-K to High School – High teacher and staff turnover

• Lake County High School – Student enrollment: 281 – High School Total Economically Disadvantaged: 65% – Total Minority Enrollment: 73%

• Colorado Mountain College – On-campus dorms

Initial Steps • Develop relationship with the administration • Persistence • Different training modes and topics – Active Shooter awareness and response – Education on Emergency Operation Plans – Serve as a technical advisor

• Customize the training to each environment – Pre-K – High School – College

• Lower priority • Little experience with the Incident Command System

Program Development • Accommodate administration concerns – Conduct tactical training after hours – Teacher and administrator time constraints

• Conduct Table Top Exercises – Top hazards – Existing plans – Identify planning gaps

• Couple plan development with exercises – Small steps – Incremental improvements

Exercise Approaches

1 of 2

• The exercise “marathon” – Two days of back-to-back table tops – Administrative representation – Customized to each school

• The exercise serial approach – A different school a month or more apart – Consolidate gains

Exercise Approaches • Single school exercises – Most confident and trained leadership – Volunteers – Other school leadership observes – Models the plan for less experienced administrators and teachers

2 of 2

Valerie MacDonald Pitkin County Emergency Manager Aspen School District TTXs

ss

You have to get in the door

Now what?

Choose your scenario

Communication: internal and external

Non custodial parent disputes

Reunification

School threat hazard identification risk assessment and core capabilities

Know your resources

If I had to start over again

State, State, and more State ………………

Succession planning

Time for graduation!

“The only thing harder than planning is explaining why you didn’t” Quote borrowed from Scott Morrill, Emergency Manager, Gunnison County (and probably many EMs before Scott)!

WHAT IS THE STATE TEACHING SCHOOLS?

School Emergency Management Grant • 3-8 hour workshops, funded by US Dept. of Ed  Workshop 1- Understanding the situation, developing goals and objectives, developing courses of action  Workshop 2- Writing the plan based on “Guide to Developing High Quality School EOP’s  Workshop 3- Review, approval, implementation and maintenance with a focus on TTX’s

Other services Facilitated TTX’s at school request, we always encourage them to include emergency managers/responders, but we can’t mandate it Provide mini-TTX’s to school safety/security personnel for individualized training Provide copies of and training based on the “Colorado School Emergency Operations Plan Exercise Toolkit”, which was mailed to all school districts and county Emergency Managers in 2011

CONDUCTING AND DESIGNING TABLETOPS

Topic Overview

Tabletop Exercise Participants

Setting Up the Tabletop • Select location. • Prepare exercise materials. • Determine room layout, arrange room, and test equipment. • Decide on administrative and logistical issues. • Develop checklist for needed materials and other items.

Conducting the Tabletop •

Welcome players & introduce facilitator/evaluators.

•

Present exercise purpose.

•

Explain exercise conduct.

•

Introduce narrative and significant events.

•

Ensure all players are involved.

•

Encourage and facilitate problem solving.

•

Control pace and flow of exercise.

•

Evaluate exercise progress.

Evaluation At the end of the tabletop: • Assess how well the exercise objectives were achieved. • Identify opportunities for improvement for: o Improved response capabilities. o Revising plans, policies, and procedures.

Topic Overview

Tabletop Exercises Provide opportunities to: •

Bring together diverse groups.

•

Discuss issues in depth, in low-stress environment.

•

Engage in collaborative problem solving.

•

Resolve questions of coordination and responsibility.

•

Assess current policies, procedures, and the school EOP.

•

Identify areas of improvement.

Designing Tabletop Materials • Describe context and direction. • Provide background information. • Establish a common frame of reference. • Present new information. • Prompt expected actions. • Provide information. • Complicate the exercise. • Initiate specific actions.

Choosing a scenario • For a tabletop exercise to be effective, the scenario must be relative to the audience. You wouldn’t want to plan a Tsunami exercise for an area where this is not a possibility. • To create a TTX you will first want to look at the threats and hazards for the school. Choose one of the threats that are most likely to be faced by the community. (Remember you are testing the EOP in a TTX, so choose a threat that has already been planned for.) • Once you have selected a threat or hazard, it’s time to do some background research.

Adding perspective • Has the threat or hazard occurred in the past in your community? Has it ever occurred in a similar or nearby community? Can you add historical notes, pictures, press clippings or other information to your scenario? • By adding this perspective you can make a scenario come to life and add a real world feel to your exercise?

Adding perspective Consider providing participants with real life pictures, maps, weather reports (from NOAA), in an effort to put the participants in the moment.

Writing the narrative • Provide the who, what, where and when in your initial scenario. If using real place names or even fictional ones, make sure they are included in participant maps. • If technical terms are used, provide participants with a glossary or technical guides

For instance… MERICA

C . R . 4 5 6

SHERTIN M.S. US 129

Shertin Tornado Example: On today’s date at 11:15 am, the Shertin Middle School Principal receives word from a concerned staff member that a funnel cloud was witnessed just ½ a mile north of the school. The principal turns on his weather radio and hears that several F2 tornados have recently touched down in Merica, a small town 3 miles to the north.

Significant activities • Used to guide the exercise • Consider if participants need to change focus or refocus, based on the desired outcome of the exercise • Prompt participants to use EOP or certain functions. i.e. the tornado scenario just described does not cause participants to use shelter-in-place functions, the facilitator may need to ramp up the perceived danger

Shertin Tornado Example: The school janitor rushes into the office and reports seeing a tornado on the ground, north of the gymnasium and that he saw a small shed on a neighboring property, “just blown away.”

Capture the moment …

Messages or injects • Used to further guide the exercise and/or test other portions of the EOP • May come in the form of radio/telephone messages to players, news radio, television news, media requests, manon-the street or any number of other sources • Used by the facilitator to correct lapses in judgment and/or provide necessary information that the players may not have requested. • Generally made on the fly by the facilitator

Shertin Tornado Example: Incident Commander receives a phone call from the Governor’s Office asking for more info on the status of the school, whose population includes a nephew of the Governors. (To guide the players that they need to be communicating with outside community members) Or: 9News is reporting that kids have been observed evacuating the school with the tagline, “WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?” (To guide the players away from using evacuation in this case)

Activity: Design and Conduct a Tabletop Part 1 Instructions: The teams will be developing tabletops for each other. Prepare to brief the other team on the exercise you want them to develop for you. Working as a team . . . •

Determine the objectives you wish to exercise with a tabletop.

•

Select a planned event or emergency incident that meets those objectives.

•

Be prepared to brief another team in 15 minutes.

Activity: Design and Conduct a Tabletop Part 2 Instructions:

Next, you will develop a tabletop exercise for the other team on their objectives and incident: 1.

Describe the scenario in sufficient detail, using the scenario template.

2.

Develop an evaluator checklist for the tabletop.

3.

Be prepared to conduct the tabletop in 40 minutes.

Activity: Design and Conduct a Tabletop Part 3 Instructions:

Conduct the selected tabletop. Your team will either . . . • Facilitate the tabletop you developed, or • Participate in the tabletop, using your school plan to respond, or • Observe/evaluate and facilitate a debrief.

Considerations from around the state Schools need your help with understanding what their real threats and hazards are Schools need assistance with planning, TTX’s and exercises Many schools want to focus on Active Shooter, help educate them on all the other threats in our state Customize any TTX you bring to a school, school personnel get bogged down by incorrect details, i.e. schedules and floor plans Build trust to minimize fear of failure or of being judged Desire to go FULL SCALE…next week!

Considerations from around the state Ensure schools are using TTX’s to test their plans not individual reactions Help schools get valid evaluations and assistance with improvement planning Help schools work through the sense of being overwhelmed by everything they don’t have in place Use your time wisely, schools don’t have enough hours in the day Emergency responders need to be at the table, to work through plans Benefits: low cost, short time, safe environment

Questions?