The Camas School District presented a districtwide safety progress report during its Jan. 13 board workshop, outlining recent technology upgrades, training, and next steps to standardize emergency practices across schools.

District staff said the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) rollout is largely complete and that the district is now focusing on measuring progress and refining building emergency plans so they are quick and usable in a crisis. "What we're doing with the progress report ... is making sure that there are key parts of the action plan that are noted," Lisa, a district strategic-planning staff member, said during the workshop.

District safety co-leads Doug and Sherman described recent technology and operational changes aimed at faster incident response and clearer accountability. The district integrated CrisisGo so a single alert can trigger notifications to clocks, computers and staff phones and notify district office staff and the school resource officer. Sherman said the integrated system also includes a rostering feature that lets staff mark which students are present by classroom, grade or name to speed student accounting during incidents. "If a teacher pulls up their students, they can mark all the students that are there," Sherman said.

Administrators also upgraded camera software to capture a short pre-event buffer and longer post-event footage, and installed vape sensors in secondary restrooms. District staff reported the vaping sensors and camera work were funded in part from a statewide lawsuit settlement that provided about $87,000 to the district for safety equipment.

The district is standardizing building emergency plans (binders) to remove extraneous materials and create quick-reference guidance for staff. Doug said some older binders list staff who have since retired and that the district will update leads and streamline roles so teams reflect realistic on-site staffing during emergencies.

Officer Kevin Herman of the Camas Police Department (listed by staff as participating with the safety work group) was identified as a partner in the work group. District staff said that local SROs receive CrisisGo notifications and that the system supports an incident-command structure in which a building incident commander relays requests to a central incident commander, who coordinates district resources such as transportation.

Training and monitoring were emphasized as next steps. Staff said Sherman has run live tests and on-site trainings at two elementary schools, Grass Valley and Dorothy Fox, where administrators and teachers practiced drills and the digital rostering function. The district reported roughly 80% of staff have installed the CrisisGo mobile app; staff said adoption tends to rise after live exercises.

Board members asked about connectivity in campus outdoor areas and the district said Wi‑Fi coverage was opened for staff devices and that some buildings use cellular repeaters; the district also owns a fleet of radios and repeaters that can be distributed in an event. Board members suggested that several of them visit the technology office to practice using CrisisGo and the rostering tools; staff agreed to offer 1-on-1 sessions for board members and additional on-site training for buildings that request it.

District staff described the safety work group as newly formed, meeting twice so far with a plan for additional meetings this year; they said progress reports will appear on the district’s strategic-plan website and that the work group will develop metrics and a monitoring tool for CrisisGo implementation and drill verification. "We want your feedback on what was missing," Lisa said of the progress reports provided to the board.

The presentation closed with staff noting the work remains ongoing and that safety is a continuous process of refinement rather than a one-time implementation.

Next steps: the district will continue 1-on-1 building support, develop a progress-monitoring tool for CrisisGo and drills, standardize emergency binders, and post updated progress reports to the strategic-plan site for board review.