Parents:

Please know that student safety is one of our primary concerns here at Ecker Hill Middle School. We work with the Summit County Sheriff’s Department and the Park City Fire Department to plan for emergencies. Our school regularly practices drills for emergencies involving fire, earthquake, school violence, and toxic spills. Evacuation maps and procedures are posted in every classroom and substitute folder, teachers and staff members are trained in emergency procedures, and plans are in place for students with special needs. Teacher emergency notebooks include a phone tree for each of their classes, in the event that we need to quickly call parents. In addition, two way radios are located throughout the building in order to improve communication if needed. Thanks to our PTO, each classroom is stocked with emergency food, water, and first aid supplies.

Parents are important partners in our emergency planning. It is critical that we have emergency contact information for all families in case of an emergency or illness. Please be sure that you have completely filled out all information on the emergency cards and listed a contact person in case we cannot reach you. If you move or change your phone number, please be sure to let us know so that we can update your information. Additional information regarding our emergency procedures and where to go in case of an evacuation can be found on our school web site.

Information about our school access routing plan can be found here. Due to the volume of traffic and the lack of sidewalks in this area,  we do not recommend students walking to school from any neighborhoods other than Brook Hollow Loop, Elk Meadows, Pine Creek, Pinebrook Cottages, and High Meadows. If your child does walk from any of those neighborhoods, please be sure that he or she crosses at the crosswalk by the fire station and enters the building at the bus access doors. Summit County is currently working on a trail from Kimball Junction to the Pinebrook trails, which should greatly enhance the safety of pedestrians coming from neighborhoods east of the school.

Now that our school is larger, traffic in our parking lot is greatly increased. If you are picking your child up after school, please pull up to the curb in front of the school. Students are not to be dropped off or picked up on the frontage road, bus access area, or driveway leading into the parking lot. If the curb area is full, please don’t pull up alongside other cars and have your child run through traffic to get to your car. If you can’t get to the curb, please park your car and walk to the building to pick up your child.

We appreciate your support and assistance in keeping our students safe. Please don’t hesitate to call me at 645-5610 with any questions, concerns, or suggestions about our emergency planning procedures. Thanks for all you do for our students and our school.

Sincerely,

Amy Jenkins
Principal

Reunification Response Action

In some emergency situations, it may not be safe for students to stay in or re-enter the school. When this happens, actions will be taken so that students reunify with their parents at an alternative location.

• Be aware of the location where students are being released. EHMS’s primary location is the Kimball LDS church located just north of EHMS, our secondary location is Jeremy Ranch Elementary school. Please note that it may not be possible to utilize these locations during a reunification action. In such cases, information regarding the location and directions for picking up your child will be relayed through local media sources and the district office.
• When arriving at the reunification location, please follow the directions posted on signs or given by school personnel. Our primary responsibility is to ensure students are safely released to their parents. To do this, it’s essential that we establish an organized and orderly process.
• Have valid identification with you. Students will only be released to parents or other adults (as indicated on the emergency contact/release form) with proper identification.

If we evacuate to the LDS church, students will be held in the multipurpose room and the stations will be in the church’s main lobby; if evacuated to Jeremy Ranch Elementary, students will be held in the multipurpose room and the stations will bein the main hallway.

We appreciate your support and assistance in this important matter. Please call us at 645-5610 with any questions or concerns about our emergency procedures.

In the Event of an Emergency

Early Release Plan

Our early release plan is used in the event that it becomes necessary to end the school day early for reasons other than the evacuation of the building. Examples of situations that may result in early release include heavy snowfall, flooding, extreme weather, or extended power outage.

If the decision is made to activate an early release, KPCW (649-9004 or 649-8395) and KSL (655-8427) radio stations will be notified, as well as PCTV8 television (649-0045). Every teacher’s emergency notebook contains a class list for each period with parent names and phone numbers. Staff members will utilize these class lists as a phone tree to notify parents of the situation. It is very important that Ms. Kelsch, our attendance secretary, has all necessary phone numbers so that we are able to contact you as quickly as possible at any time during the school day.

If it is a situation requiring parents to pick their students up from school, parents must first report to the office and give the staff member their student’s name. At that time, the student will be notified and sent to the front office. Please do not attempt to take your child directly from his or her classroom. All individuals picking up students must either be positively identified by our staff or provide valid identification. Unless that person’s name is on our list as having your permission to pick up your child, we will not release your child to them. These precautions are in place to ensure that all students are accounted for and released only to those persons whom parents have deemed appropriate.

Student safety is one of our primary concerns at Ecker Hill Middle School. We thank you for your support and assistance in this important matter. If you have any questions or concerns about our emergency planning, please don’t hesitate to call us at 435-645-5610.