New Ulm Police Departments School Resource Office (SRO) Dustin Fleck and New Ulm High School (NUHS) Assistant Principal Joe Lopez get ready for a relocation drill next week on Friday, Sept. 12. The 750 students and faculty from NUHS will leave the school and walk to a site a mile from the school as part of the drill. The relocation plan has been part of the school’s emergency plan for years, but this is the first time the school has practice it.

NEW ULM — Next week Friday commuters traveling along Oak Street and N. 12th Street will witness an unusual sight with 750 New Ulm High School students and staff walking along the sidewalk away from the high school.

This is all part of a planned relocation drill for NUHS. Assistant Principal Joe Lopez said the relocation drill has been in the planning stage since last year.

“We want students to know where to go in case of a dire emergency,” Lopez said. There are multiple reasons the high school may need to relocate students and staff, including a gas leak or fire. Lopez also acknowledged the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis last week.

“Sadly, it is another reason why we need a relocation plan,” he said.

New Ulm High School has had a relocation plan in place for several years, but the school has never conducted a practice drill.

“We are required by the Minnesota Department of Education to do lockdown drills every year,” Lopez said. “We thought we should do a drill that the kids have never done before.”

The plan is to start the relocation at 9 a.m. next Friday. High school students will walk down Oak Street toward Garden Street. From Garden Street, the students will walk on 12th North to a site a mile away from the high school. New Ulm police officers will be on each road to help with traffic and to supervise the drill.

Lopez said part of the relocation will include an evacuation of the school building. The building will be cleared out in phases. Instead of students traveling in one large group, they will move in waves.

It is estimated that the entire drill will take 90 minutes to complete. Lopez said this is one of the reasons the school has never conducted this drill before. He said a traditional fire drill could be completed in 10 minutes, but this one is a little more involved.

Part of the drill will include a check-in process. Teachers will take attendance to ensure each student arrives at the relocation site.

Lopez said to make this drill possible the school district had to coordinate with the NUPD and City of New Ulm. He wanted to thank everyone for helping collaborate on this safety drill.

“I want our kids and staff to know what to do in the event of an emergency,” he said.

The school district hopes the relocation plan is never needed, but he wanted everyone prepared in case it is necessary.

Another important part of the drill is alerting the public that it is happening. Lopez said if citizens see around 750 high school students and teachers walking on the sidewalk, they are going to have questions and this will lead to calls to the school and police.

“Hopefully this will mitigate some of the questions,” Lopez said.