Published: July 15, 2008 12:11 pm      

School board approves mitigation plan

Ada — Members of the board of education for Ada Public Schools voted to approve a multi-hazard mitigation plan in conjunction with the city of Ada Monday evening. The board also heard concerns from an Ada parent regarding the school system’s current field trip transportation policy.

Gene Linton, Ada’s emergency management director, explained to the board how the plan would be implemented. Superintendent Pat Harrison said that Linton had been instrumental in bringing the school district into the plan with the city, a project that Linton has been working on for over two years. “What a hazard mitigation plan is, is we have to get a plan developed of what we believe to be mitigation or preventive measures that a school or a general committee could do,” Linton said. “And we had to include so many types of meetings involved in that. Once that process is completed, then the plan has to go to the state emergency board for approval. Once it’s approved there, it has to go to FEMA Region 6 in Denton for approval. Once that’s done then it comes back for ratification to both governing bodies, the school board and city council.”

Linton used the recent tornado in Picher as an example of how the mitigation plan would work. “There was a presidential declaration made on that,” he explained. “I don’t know how many dollars have been spent, it’s probably not finished yet. But let’s just use the figure of $4 million. Then they will come in later and say: ‘Okay, 15 percent of the money that we spent there will now be released to the state of Oklahoma for mitigation use.’ And at that point, any entity that has an approved mitigation plan can apply for funding for part of their plan, for 75 percent funding, with a 25 percent local match.”

Employment of the mitigation plans would help both the city and the school system to take advantage of funds made available after the occurrence of natural disasters and a presidential declaration.

The board expressed enthusiasm for the mitigation plan, and voted to accept it after Linton had concluded his address.

The board also heard from Ada parent Ken Gandy, who addressed the board with concerns regarding the school’s current field trip transportation policy. Gandy had previously sent out a letter to all board members expressing frustration towards the school’s policy of not allowing parents to escort children personally to or from field trips in their own vehicles. “I’ve looked into it a lot, and it just doesn’t seem to reflect the best balance I think is possible between parents being involved in educational opportunities with the kids” Gandy said. “I think we can do better.” Gandy said that it would be in the best interest of all children for parents to have the ability to be more involved.

Harrison said that the downside of allowing children to ride with parents is that often-times it’s a last minute decision, and often the parent wants to transport not only their child, but someone else’s as well. This could lead to all kinds of disasters, Harrison explained. But he was also receptive to Gandy’s point, stating that a compromise could probably be reached one that would allow parents the chance to transport their own children, as long as a written request could be handed in well before the actual trip. Although with diesel prices currently climbing towards five dollars per gallon, Harrison pointed out jokingly, field trips could be a thing of the past.

The matter of school liability was also an issue to the board. “Certainly a parent’s involvement in the school is needed and desired,” said board member Charles Mayhue. “But we’ve got some parents that are in worse shape than the kids, as far as taking responsibility of things goes. Those are the one’s that we’ve really got to safeguard ourselves against.”