Since late October, leaders from the school district, public safety agencies and local governments have been meeting to see how they can help each other make Oxford safer for everyone during emergency situations.
‘Everybody has operational plans for how they would handle things, but it all needs to be brought together so everyone can know what the other guy’s doing,? said Fire Chief Jack LeRoy. ‘It’s not that we haven’t been prepared. This is to make us better prepared.?
LeRoy described this whole effort as ‘a meeting of the minds for the purpose of bringing forth better emergency management.?
The minds that are meeting include Superintendent Dr. Bill Skilling, village Police Chief Mike Neymanowski, Oakland County Sheriff’s Lt. Larry Perry, township Supervisor Bill Dunn, village Manager Joe Young, Chief LeRoy and a host of school district department heads and building principals.
‘We all have things we can contribute to make it better,? said LeRoy, noting the group and its subcommittees have been busy assessing each other’s ‘strengths and weaknesses? so they can come up with an ‘interactive plan? to centralize and standardize operations in an effort to ‘maximize our efficiency? in emergency situations.
‘That way we’re all operating off the same game plan,? the chief said.
Although ‘nothing is cast in stone yet or finalized,? LeRoy wanted the public to know about this effort and how well everyone is working together.
The lines of communication between all of the agencies are open and that’s ‘somewhat of a first,? the chief said.
He noted that it’s not just about how the public safety agencies can help the schools better protect students ? although that is the main component ? it’s also about how the school district can use its resources to help the community-at-large.
‘It’s a two-way effort,? LeRoy said.
During an emergency, the school district has the ability to not only transport large groups of people, but provide them with temporary shelter as well.
‘We’ve got people over there (at the schools) that are more than willing to help us,? LeRoy said.
For instance, say there’s a fire at Independence Village of Waterstone or Hope Senior Apartments in the middle of the night during the winter.
School buses could be used to transport the seniors to one of the schools to keep them warm and safe until other arrangements could be made.
‘This is kind of a first for a school district and the public safety entities to sit down together to see what they can do to help each other,? LeRoy noted. ‘I want to commend the school district for being open and willing to help with this. Superintendent Skilling has been really helpful with this and so have many of his department heads and administrators.?
Although things are going well so far, LeRoy cautioned that the public shouldn’t expect to see some big plan happen overnight.
‘I think it’s going to be a great thing for the community, but it takes time,? he said.