The Pasadena Citizen | June 6, 2009
By Kristina Salazar

With so many children, faculty and staff it is understandable why during times of emergencies school districts can be chaotic, especially when deciding whether to close or re-open schools.

However, thanks to the joint efforts of the Public Information Emergency Response System (PIER) and the Harris County Department of Education’s Center for Safe and Secure Schools, getting timely and valuable information to the general public, as well as the media regarding emergency school closures and re-openings, is only a click away on www.safeschoolalerts.org.

“We saw the need to make sure accurate and timely information goes out and to do it in a quickly and efficient way,” said Laurie Shah, school safety specialist for Safe and Secure Schools. “It’s not meant to replace any internal information. It’s another layer to build some redundancy into the communication system.”

HCDE, working with both Harris County and the city of Houston on the initiative, obtained the site out of a total of 30 through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Local Urban Area Security Initiative Grant, which are aimed at enhancing regional emergency communications.

Regarding the personnel who can access the Web site in order to upload the alerts, each of the school districts who have signed up have specifically chosen their very own personnel in order to prevent conflicting reports.

“Each superintendent chose at least three or up to six or more. Sometimes up to 10 members have been approved by their superintendent,” Shah said. “There were a series of trainings throughout May that trained the individuals on how to use the system.

“Once a decision is made to close a district, they can get onto the internet anyway they can, such as a PDA or blackberry, and within a minute or two, they can send it out to the public. Anybody who is authorized to use that system is speaking with one voice from the district. Members of the media will get the same message.”

When logging on to the Web site, the individual immediately views a map of the greater Harris County school districts. While scrolling on each individual school district, two links appear-one contains emergency information about the schools within the district while the other is a direct link to the district’s website. To the left of the site, visitors are able to view the most recent school closings or re-opening updates, as each district’s folder possesses archived posted messages.

Individuals who wish to receive messages from the site can join the mailing list free of charge. When signing up, the individual can state themselves as belonging to the community or to one of the listed school districts on the scroll box. Below the scroll box, the user will then type their first and last name, an e-mail address, and list two phone numbers.

Behind this entire effort stood one person who saw the capability and need of the program.

“Dr. John Wilson, senior consultant for the HCDE’s Center for Safe and Secure Schools, spoke with the superintendents, and every single one of them bought into this system,” Shah said. “He was the individual who saw how this platform could be beneficial to school districts and the media.”

One upside to the website is that because it is provided through PIER, there are certain security standards.

“It has the same type of encryption the Department of Homeland Security uses, and it’s used for on-line banking. We’re monitoring 24/7 and it’s got great security features on it,” Shah said.

Besides school districts such as Alief, Deer Park, Pasadena, Spring, Tomball and New Caney, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Texas Medical Center, city of Houston and Port of Houston are also current users of PIER sites.

The PIER sites so far have been helpful in alerting the public about emergencies.

“UH uses it,” Shah said. “They used it during hurricane Ike and it worked phenomenally well.”

Looking at the project as a whole, however, the aspect goes beyond the schools.

“It’s one component of a regional project being implemented through PIER,” said Robert Hemminger, coordinator for the Pasadena Office of Emergency Management. “There were a number of around 30 PIER Web sites purchased to help disseminate emergency information. It’s a toll for public information officers to formulate a consistent message. The school’s one is a very small component.”

Breaking away from the school aspect, Hemminger encourages residents to also take notice and keep up with pasadenaprepares.net for alerts of any Pasadena area emergencies and sehcoem.org, which provides alerts for the Southeast Harris County area.

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