Case Study
Brazosport Independent School District

The Brazosport Independent School District (BISD) was formed in 1944 when the communities of Clute, Freeport, Jones Creek, Lake Jackson, Oyster Creek, Quintana, Richwood, and Surfside Beach united their educational resources. The BISD is located about 60 miles south of Houston in Brazoria County, Texas.  Educating thousands of students on a daily basis, the BISD consists of 19 campuses, encompassing 11 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, 3 intermediate schools, 2 high schools, and an Alternative Placement Center. 

Focus

The BISD realized its need to strengthen, improve, and test its emergency operation plan.  Further, the district realized its need to have all facilities in the BISD undergo a comprehensive safety assessment.  Lastly, the district had little or no funding available for the needs they wished to address.

Solutions

Understanding that a school system's ability to protect its students and personnel is of paramount importance, the BISD partnered with SASI in order to assist them in the overall improvement of their current situation.  SASI began working to assist the BISD in achieving their goals through a comprehensive approach.

Component One: A Grant from the United States Department of Education

The BISD, as with most public schools in Texas, did not have the funds available to support a project of this magnitude.  SASI partnered with BISD and wrote, on their behalf, a grant to fund the project.  The grant writing component was successful and the United States Department of Education awarded the BISD the funds necessary to complete the 18 month project.

Component Two: Community Involvement

SASI assisted the BISD in identifying community partners that would be critical to the success of the project.  These partners were then invited to participate in the improvement process.  A series of community wide meetings were held as the project began.  Community partners that participated in the improvement process were BISD students, BISD parents, county agencies (health department, sheriff's department, and emergency management), local government (city managers), and local emergency service providers (police, fire, and emergency medical services).

Component Three: Facility Safety Assessments

SASI personnel who are highly trained and experienced in facility safety assessments conducted rigorous facility assessments for each facility in the BISD.  During the assessment, campus emergency response teams, building administrators, and local partners were invited to participate.  The purpose of this invitation was to create sustainability in the assessment processes by training school personnel to conduct regular assessments of their own facilities.

Reports specific to each facility were presented to the BISD.

Component Four: Training and Plan Evaluation

SASI personnel, trained by the United States Emergency Management Institute and experienced in emergency service management and educational leadership, next provided a series of training courses to BISD personnel specific to emergency management.  These trainings included BISD administrative personnel, campus emergency response teams, and a variety of community partners.  The training courses that were delivered are:

• Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools
• Incident Command System
• National Incident Management System

As the training courses were being conducted, SASI assisted the BISD in reviewing and providing feedback on its existing emergency operations and crisis management plan.

Component Five: Exercises and Drills

At the conclusion of the project, SASI designed a series of tabletop exercises for each facility in the BISD.  The emergency response teams at each campus were then brought together for a day of exercises relating specifically to their facilities.

The improvement project concluded with a community wide drill designed to test the functionality of the BISD and local partners.  The drill lasted four hours and involved the BISD and all of its community partners.

Accountability and Follow Through

Our experience has taught us that developing solutions to problems is fairly easy; it is implementation, commitment to change, and lack of accountability that are usually the roadblocks on the path to improvement.  SASI supported the targeted improvements of the BISD by creating sustainability at every point possible during the project.  At the conclusion of the project, SASI provided the BISD with detailed feedback specifically relating to the improvements targeted during our time together.

The BISD has now committed funds for routine tasks associated with maintaining the improvements that occurred.

Results

The results of the partnership between SASI and the BISD have been realized in several key areas. The results were:

• An improved crisis management and emergency operations plan
• A successful evaluation of table top exercises, site specific drills, and a community wide drill testing the capabilities of the BISD, local police, local fire department, local emergency medical services, several county agencies, and private industry partners
• Crisis management teams at each BISD facility were trained in FEMA's Mulit-Hazard Planning for Schools (MHPFS), Incident Command System (ICS), and the National Incident Management System (NIMS)