Emergencies

In the event of a natural disaster:

Safety Update for Parents

September, 2009                                                                                

 

 

              BEFORE SCHOOL:

 

  • If at any time and for any reason you are concerned for the safety of your child because of an imminent or occurring natural disaster, please keep your child at home whether or not you have heard that school is closed for the day.

               BEFORE AND DURING THE SCHOOL DAY:

 

  • In the event that the school is being closed for any reason, the school will notify parents by blasting an emergency phone call through our new, automated Parent Alert System (PAS) using the phone number parents have registered at the school. In the event of a natural disaster, parents may also discover if the school is closed from announcements on radio station KSSK (AM-590 and FM-92.3) and on the local television stations: KHON (channel 2), KITV (channel 4), KHNL (Channel 8), and KGMB (channel 9). Other radio stations may also be notified.

 

As soon as the decision is made to close the school, the principal or Lanikai School office staff will immediately call the Hawaii Charter School Administrative Office, which in turn will notify the Department of Education central office for emergencies.  That office notifies the broadcasters. 

 

In most natural disaster situations, Lanikai School will follow the lead of the DOE Windward District Office.  If Kailua Elementary School and Kailua Intermediate School are closed or closing, Lanikai Elementary will close as well. If you hear that either of those schools is closed because of weather or other natural disaster, assume that Lanikai is closed, as well.

 

Please do not call the school office as we may need the lines to call out.

 

  • In the event of a minor emergency, such as a power failure, water main break, a fire, or other event that does not affect other schools, Lanikai School staff will use our PAS to call parents’ emergency phone numbers to provide information about school closure and instructions about picking up children.  At the same time and depending upon the situation, we may contact each room parent or alternate and request that the parent telephone tree be activated.
  •  In the event of a school closure emergency during the school day, if you are to pick up your child on campus, please park in the first space you can find and walk directly to your child’s homeroom without stopping for a visitor ID tag.  When you arrive at the classroom, you must identify yourself to the teacher or assistant. If you send someone else to pick up the child, it must be a person listed on the school’s emergency card.  Everyone who takes a child must have picture ID and must sign out the child in the classroom.
  • If we must evacuate the campus, we have three options:
  1. If there is danger of an imminent tsunami, we will all walk to the top of the hill across Alala Road. Parents will not be allowed to drive up the hill to collect children.  If school is to be closed, the process described in the above paragraph will be activated when we are allowed to return to the campus.
  2.  If we need to take children into Kailua, we will all walk to Kailua Intermediate School (KIS) on Kainalu Drive, where parents or designees with ID can pick them up.  Directions will be given to parents as they arrive at that school.
  3. If, however, we cannot return to the campus from the hill or cannot safely walk across the Kawainui Canal bridge and to KIS, children will instead walk across the Mid Pacific golf course to Iana Street, and then to Paokano Loop. Paokano begins and ends on Iana near the Enchanted Lake shopping area.  Please check out a map to be sure you are familiar with that neighborhood. You will turn from Keolu Drive onto Iana, then right onto Paokano Loop.  Children will be assembled by classrooms along the sidewalk in the Loop with 6th graders first.  After you pick up your children, you will turn left onto Iana Street again and drive out to Keolu. Our Student Council has participated in this drill and found that it worked well. We hope we never need to use this alternative, but it is extremely important to be prepared.

 

Using the school website: In case of any campus evacuation or any need for parents to pick up their children at unusual times or at spots away from the campus, we will post that information on the school website as quickly as possible.

Preparing for Emergencies and Natural Disasters

It is critical that we have accurate emergency contact information for parents so that we may contact them in the event of an accident, illness, or campus emergency. If your home, work phone number, doctor, or emergency contact information changes, you must provide an update to the school office.

 

  1. School Closed?     Weather conditions can cause changes in school start or dismissal times or the cancellation of school altogether. If the decision is made to close Lanikai School, we will blast a message to all parents through our automated Parent Alert System (PAS).  If parents feel the weather is questionable but have received no call regarding school closure, they can listen to local radio and television stations for Windward District information. School closings will be announced. 

  2. Dismissal?    If we determine to close the school early, we will announce the closure using the PAS and will keep all students at school until parents come. Parents should park and go directly to the child’s classroom to check the child out with the teacher.  If parents cannot come themselves, they must be sure that the person coming brings picture ID and is listed on the child’s emergency card.  Those coming to pick up a child should not stop at the office unless they need directions.

  3. Tsunami?   In the event of a warning for an imminent tsunami, all students and staff will evacuate our low-lying campus to a much higher rally area up the hillside across Alala Road.  We will return to the campus when it is deemed safe by the authorities. If it becomes necessary for parents to pick up children before they return to campus, directions will be telephoned to parents on the school’s automated Parent Alert System.  School closures will also be announced on the emergency radio and TV stations. Office staff will not remain at school to answer phones. Teachers will, however, have a list of parents’ emergency numbers and if it becomes necessary to contact a parent personally, we will attempt to do so by telephone.  Parents must be absolutely sure we have the latest, best numbers to call.

  4. Earthquake?  In the event of an earthquake severe enough to threaten damage to campus structures, staff and students will gather in the on-campus rally area until authorities have assured us that buildings are safe.  If it becomes necessary for parents to pick up children, directions will be delivered by the automated PAS and announced on the radio and TV. 

  5. Bridge Out?   In the very unlikely event that the bridge across the canal is closed to automobile traffic and we are ordered by Civil Defense to evacuate the campus, we may walk all children or those who who do not live in the Lanikai district across the Mid Pacific golf course to Paokano Loop just off Iana Street in the Enchanted Lake area. There children will gather by grade levels along the sidewalk on the Loop and wait to be picked up.  In such a situation, school staff and parents will follow the directions of Civil Defense officials or police.  Parents should check the Keolu/Iana/Paokano neighborhood on a map.