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Schools

Schools Emergency ID System May Be Implemented

Exterior doors of every school would be numbered.

Superintendent of Schools Tony Daddona has authorized the immediate implementation of a plan to establish a Door Numbering System at all
of the city’s schools to provide a consistent means to report and respond to emergency situations.

In a news release Friday, city spokesman Tad Diesel said the plan was developed by the Norwalk Schools Emergency Planning Committee, of which Daddona is the chairman.

Diesel said the Door Numbering System was recommended by the  committee’s Norwalk Police representatives, who recently were trained and
certified to perform school safety assessments. He said the system is advanced by the Center for Safe Schools as a benchmark for emergency responses to
schools.

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Diesel provided this description of how the system works:

Each exterior door of a school, beginning with the main public entrance and proceeding clockwise around the building, is identified with a number placed at the top-right of the door, beginning with Number 1.

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Rooms with exterior doors will be also have a door’s number shown on its interior surface, with the numbers placed near the floor to assure emergency responders can see them in a smoky environment.

The consistent numbering system will allow schools to report emergency incidents in a manner that specifically identifies a location, and will enable emergency responders to know where they are needed without having to access a diagram of a school’s layout or design.

The recommendation of the system will be placed before the Board of Education Facilities Committee at its next meeting.

Diesel quoted Daddona as saying, “As we proceed with improvements to the overall emergency planning process, it makes sense to quickly implement best practice courses of action. We will continue to execute tactical initiatives even as we look to improve the overall strategic plans for the school district.”

The Emergency Planning Committee meets biweekly to update the Norwalk Public Schools Emergency Plan, which is an annex to the City of Norwalk Emergency Operations Plan, Diesel said.

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