NEW ULM – The District 88 School Board received an update on the school’s crisis management plans from Superintendent Sean Koster.

Koster said the best crisis prevention at a school is adult supervision.

“Improve student supervision by 50-60% and you will improve every aspect of school safety,” he said. “It is human nature to respond to other adults and they don’t want to let people down. It’s why kids stop running when you walk around the corner, but keep running even though they know the cameras are on them.”

He also emphasized that every plan the school has in place requires staff to implement it.

“All situations are different,” Koster said. “There are scripts and notes you want to take, but individual judgment is needed.”

Part of the school’s safety plan includes conducting built-in safety drills throughout the year. Throughout the year, the school conducts five lockdown drills, five fire drills and one severe weather drill.

Of all the different drills run through the school, the lockdown drills have evolved the most. Koster said 15 years ago, in a lockdown drill, staff was instructed to hold up and wait. In recent years, that has changed to run, hide and fight.

Koster said in lockdown scenarios, staff is more likely to use their judgement on whether to direct students out of the building or stay in a room.

“It’s really about how you can make the best decisions possible for the students you are in charge of,” Koster said.

School evacuations were a major talking point this year. Each building in the school district has a relocation zone in the event student cannot reenter the building. Last month, a relocation drill was held for the high school.

Koster said he was impressed with the efficiency of the relocation. As part of the process, members of the New Ulm Police Department cleared every room of the high school to ensure a full evacuation.

Koster said the drill was good practice, but it also led to new conversations about what to do with students after they have reached their relocation zone. Once the drill was complete, students were able to return to the school building, but in the event of an actual evacuation, students might not be able to return to the school and would need to be released to their parents from the new location. The school will need to develop additional procedures after the relocation.

Koster said the school does have a Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) and it has proven valuable. Within the last year, multiple students experienced unexpected seizures and MERT was available to help

“If you don’t have experience with it, that’s a scary situation,” Koster said. The MERT was able to respond to the situation, but this year the school has expanded training for seizure incidents to keep staff prepared.

“We try to be more robust for how we are training in the building,” Koster said.

The school also has a mental health crisis team as well with social workers, counselors serving as relief personnel. The district also has access to a school crisis response team through South Central Service Cooperative. The regional team is prepared to send a team to a school dealing with a traumatic event or serious loss, such as the death of a student or staff member.

Koster said the crisis response team can help a school work through difficult situations, including processing grief and helping students and staff navigate what is normal during the grieving process. The team will continue to reach out weeks or even months after an incident.

“We want to make sure adults get the support they need for the kids,” Koster said.

Koster said the primary reason for crisis management planning to keep students safe. He said the safest schools also have the best test scores.

“Students’ brains cannot make the necessary connection if they are in an unsafe environment,” he said. “It is a huge part of what I believe and why I talk to schools about it.”

The new regular school board meeting is at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, at the district boardroom at 414 S. Payne Street.