More than a week after an apparent hoax forced a lockdown at its high school, the San Marino School Board heard a report at Tuesday evening’s meeting from Chief Technology Officer Stephen Choi regarding proposed changes and improvements to a communication system that, in the minds of some, was slow in getting information to students, parents, teachers and community members.
By its own admission, the San Marino Unified School District (SMUSD) was able to send its first message at 7:40 a.m., almost a full hour after a decision was made at 6:45 a.m. to lockdown the school due to the discovery of a text message that threatened one of its students. With students on campus attending zero period classes and activities, a decision was made to keep students on campus who had already shown up at the school while turning away any who arrived.
In a conversation Tuesday afternoon, Choi told The Tribune that the 7:40 a.m. message was sent through the Blackboard Mass Notification System, which is transmitted via email and the district’s mobile application. Choi said the system has 3,002 recipients and is populated from the SMUSD’s student information system.
Choi said that he prepared the message from his desktop computer at home, where he had been put on alert. Choi said that 94 percent of the messages sent on the 7:40 a.m. email were opened. He acknowledged that there is often a 10-minute system delay in sending the messages from the time it is sent.
At the behest of Interim Superintendent Loren Kleinrock, Choi sent a follow-up message that was received at approximately 8:40 a.m. to dispel rumors of an active shooter and threats against other schools in the district. Choi said he sent that message from the traffic circle at Valentine Elementary School to a master list of 8,468 recipients throughout the district.
Choi also said that all administrators have the ability to send out mass notifications from their cell phones.
Some in the community have told The Tribune that they rely on the SMUSD’s mobile application. Choi said that the mobile app has been downloaded on 6,000 devices. The San Marino Unified School District has approximately 3,000 students. Choi said that Monday’s lockdown probably increased awareness among students, parents and staff members.
“There have been 597 downloads of the mobile app this week alone,” Choi said.
At Tuesday evening’s board meeting, Choi said that the district is considering implementation of what is known as the Catapult Emergency Management System. Choi explained that the system, which is web-based, will allow for two-way communication in the event of an emergency.
“For example, if there is an incident in a classroom, Catapult will provide a GPS location of the incident, staff can take photos and communicate with administrators.”
Choi said that SMUSD representatives will receive training on Catapult next month.
In a telephone conversation Tuesday afternoon, San Marino Police Department (SMPD) Chief John Incontro told The Tribune that his department communicates through NIXLE, a text-based messaging system that can also receive tips from community members. He said the SMPD currently has 1,700 subscribers on NIXLE.
At 10:34 on the morning of the lockdown, the SMPD sent a message through its CLEARS program, what Incontro described as “one-way email messages.”
“We are constantly trying to update our systems,” Incontro said. “It is a good method that is used throughout the country with different police agencies and city governments. But we are trying to find the right system and what we can afford.”
Perhaps the most thoughtful opinion on the subject came from Alyssa Escamilla, San Marino High School’s ASB school board representative. At Tuesday’s board meeting, Escamilla, a senior, was asked if she had any comments on the matter.
“I feel I have to be honest in order to do my job here,” Escamilla said. “I was dissatisfied with the communication. I saw five different Snapchats from my friends who connected with me at 7 a.m. I found more information through text messages from my friends than I did through any district communication. There is nothing worse than having an active shooter on campus. I didn’t know what was going on. It is something that was very concerning to me.”
