Greetings from the MCS Crisis Team.

We are a group of people in the school with specialized training and experience in dealing with difficult situation and we are charged with the responsibility of keeping our MCS community safe.

We are a group of people who make the plans for emergency events—the practice and the potential of the real thing! For the safety of students and staff we need to practice our plans from time to time to see when we can improve the situation (and what we have not considered). We are under very specific mandates from The State of New York, as well.

We will be conducting a Lockdown/Off Campus Drill in the near future. We must do this at the request of NYS and in conjunction with the New York State Police, the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, Delaware County EMS and the Margaretville Fire Department. We cannot share with you the date of the event (there are many coordinating issues to be worked out), but all agencies have agreed to a last minute cancellation if the weather is not suitable.

Please understand that for the safety of all members of the MCS Community—including your child—we will enact the event as if it were real and you will not be able to remove your child from the school or safe site. At this event, as in a real emergency, we will act to protect your child and others and you will not be allowed to access the building or the grounds. (The reason you have to evacuate the school building in an emergency is that it has been determined that to stay on premises would endanger the majority of the occupants.) We are anticipating (hoping) that the whole event will be accomplished in 2 hours.

If you have questions or concerns, please put them in writing addressed to the MCS Crisis Team and we will respond to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

MCS Crisis Team