Fellow Cavaliers,
What a day. Certainly, it’s a St. Patrick’s day to remember!!!
I can’t even begin to tell you how GREAT our entire team is! Every building stepped up and helped with today’s situation. Our transportation department was incredible! I called Becky Plementosh, and our drivers were on site within minutes to take our our students to the Fairgrounds! All county schools jumped in ready to help. Owosso had two buses ready to assist. The SRESD provided additional radios and offered transportation support if needed – and Dave Schulte (RESD superintendent) was on site the entire time at the Fairgrounds. Our first responders ( Corunna Caledonia Fire Department, Corunna Police Chief Schmitzer, Owosso PD, Rob Herrick from the Shiawassee County Sheriff’s Dept., Central Dispatch, our very own Head of Security Larry LaFramboise and Public Health Nurse Noah Wiggins) were on hand and assisted from the start. All were super supportive. The people at the Fairgrounds were way more accommodating than could have been expected.
However, I want to take more than a moment to thank the Elsa Meyer Elementary team, led by the administrative team of Stacy Regan and Jason Beldyga. The entire Elsa Meyer team was fantastic! The entire team was calm! The entire team jumped in to help in any way they could! The entire team was supportive and loving to every single student! They were super team players!
In short, the entire Elsa Meyer team was HEROIC!!!!
The elements were miserable (I’m having a hard time typing this as I can’t yet feel my fingers – and many were out there without coats, hats, etc., doing what needed to be done). Their efforts were proof-positive to parents and the rest of the community of how unselfish, loving, and dedicated our staff is for their children. Again, I can’t even begin to tell you how impressive each and every one of them was!
I am humbled by their efforts.
Finally, here’s a quick bullet-point summary of what happened:
- The fire alarm system went off at Elsa Meyer.
- Students / staff evacuated the building.
- The alarm stopped, but the system was still showing an anomaly.
- Someone reported they thought they had seen smoke coming from the roof (the fire department has since surmised that it was probably steam from the boiler room…)
- The fire department was called.
- Communication was shared with families.
- We then moved the students to the armory.
- When the fire department arrived, they did a complete sweep of the building. We were told it was going to be a very lengthy process.
- At that time, we made the decision to transport the students to the Fairgrounds and have parents reunite with their children there.
- We received an “all-clear” for Elsa Meyer from the fire department while we were at the Fairgrounds. The fire department said they didn’t see any sign of any fire, smoke, etc., that would be cause for alarm.
- Several more updates were made to families.
- The building (Elsa Meyer) was open for parents to pick up student belongings from 1 to 3 p.m.
All students are accounted for. All students are safe. The district's time spent previously working on our Emergency Operations Plan was time well spent.
Thanks again, and have a GREAT weekend!
Sincerely,
Superintendent John Fattal