Safety and Security

Minnetonka Public Schools is committed to providing a safe, welcoming school experience for all of our students, staff, families and visitors in all of our schools and throughout our grounds. We are continuously working to improve and evolve our security procedures and will continue to do so, engaging best practice methods, processes and protocols to further enhance our approach to providing a comprehensive and multifaceted security presence. We have exceptional relationships with our local law enforcement, fire departments and emergency management teams in our communities, as well as with Hennepin County, Carver County, the City of Minnetonka, and other cities within our school district.

Emergency Communications

In an emergency, impacted staff, parents/guardians, and depending on the situation and age-level, sometimes students, will receive email communication through Minnetonka Public Schools’ mass communications notification system. In many cases, a text and/or phone message will also be sent to parents and staff. (Note: To receive phone messages and text messages through this notification system, parents and staff must have their cell phone numbers listed in their SSO profile. If you need assistance, please contact the helpdesk at family.helpdesk@minnetonkaschools.org.)

Building Security

The safety of our students and staff is always our primary concern. As such, we take building security very seriously.

All of our school buildings have controlled access entrances.
All exterior doors to our school buildings are locked during school hours. Visitors must enter through the main office before accessing the rest of the building.
Video intercom systems are used at all schools. This allows school staff to see who is requesting entry into the school before admitting a visitor into the building.
Once access into the office is granted, all visitors are asked to show a photo ID which is run through a visitor management system. This process screens out individuals who may pose a danger to our students and staff.
School Resource Officers (who are Minnetonka Police Officers) are present in Minnetonka High School every day.
Our schools have multiple interior and exterior cameras which may be viewed by school administrators, law enforcement and security personnel.
Our staff have undergone training on building security and the importance of keeping exterior doors secured throughout the school day. This training is provided to new staff, as well.

Planning

As part of our emergency planning, our District has a comprehensive approach to planning for all possible hazards. This approach addresses a multitude of emergency situations which may be encountered. Our emergency procedures and planning is reviewed and updated annually by staff and our public safety partners. Our approach is consistent with the principles of the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) guides all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector to work together to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to and recover from incidents.

NIMS provides stakeholders across the whole community with the shared vocabulary, systems and processes to successfully deliver the capabilities described in the National Preparedness System. NIMS defines operational systems that guide how personnel work together during incidents.

District security and communications staff regularly with our public safety partners, including city staff, local law enforcement, fire, EMS, and Hennepin and Carver County Emergency Management personnel to assure that school district plans are consistent with first responder protocols. In addition, the District conducts joint training and exercises related to a variety of emergency scenarios with these partners.

Visitor Management System

The school district utilizes a visitor management system to screen all visitors entering a school during the school day.

Purpose:
This system is used to screen all visitors (parents, volunteers, guests) entering the secure area of the schools. This provides a minimally intrusive level of basic screening for known and registered sex offenders and increases general safety inside the schools during the school day.

What Does This System Check?
The system is comparing the names/date of births of persons entering our schools to the National Sex Offender Registry which is a publicly available website that provides access to sex offender data nationwide (https://www.nsopw.gov), as well as multiple state local offender registries.

Policy:
It is the procedure, supported by Board Policy #903 of the Minnetonka Public School District that prior to entry into the secured area of a school during the regular school day, all visitors with approved business inside the school are required to present a valid Driver’s License or State ID Card which shall be scanned into the visitor management system. Once the system has checked/approved that person’s information in the database, the visitor will receive an identification badge (sticker) and will be allowed entry into the school.

Exceptions:
If the visitor requesting access does not have ID with them, school staff may elect to confirm the person’s identity through other means and enter it into the visitor management system manually to be checked against the database. The visitor should be reminded that next time they visit, they will be required to provide their identification to be scanned or they may be denied entry.

Note: This policy does not in any way prevent the school district from prohibiting persons from entering school properties based on other criteria including but not limited to prior or current conduct or disruptive behavior, persons who have been previously trespassed from the property, information obtained from school or District administration, information obtained through District SROs of other law enforcement personnel, and those without any approved business inside the school.

Safety Drills

Consistent with MN State Statute 21A.037, the Minnetonka Public School District conducts a variety of safety drills in all schools each school year.

This includes:

Five Fire Drills
Five School Lockdown Drills
One severe weather (Tornado Drill).

Safety drills ensure that staff and students are familiar with our emergency procedures in the event of such a situation in one of our schools. It is important to note that a school lockdown may be initiated for a variety of reasons at a school, including a major event or a medical situation or other issue which may be taking place in a hallway or area of a school where school officials do not want children to observe what may be taking place.

School Delays, Closure and Early Releases

The District's emergency closing procedures are used when schools are experiencing significant inclement weather or other situations that require an interruption to the normal school day. This could include a delay to the start of the day, a full-day closure or an early release at the end of the day.

Visit the Emergency Closing Procedures webpage for more information.

Reunification

Student Reunification:
Circumstances may occur at the school that require parents to pick up their students in a formalized, controlled release at a site other than their student’s school. This process is called a “reunification” and may be necessary due to an emergency or significant incident such as tornado damage sustained by the school or another situation that requires the school district to move students to an alternate location for parent pick-up.

**Please note, off-site reunification will typically not be used for non-emergency unplanned early closure situations, such as a power outage or a snow-related release.

Notification:
Parents/guardians will be notified about an off-site reunification through Minnetonka Public Schools’ email, phone and text messaging system. Depending on the situation causing the reunification, the reunification location may also be shared on the District’s website and through social media and other broadcast platforms and outlets.

Parent Expectations:
If a parent/guardian is notified that an off-site reunification is needed, there are some expectations that they should understand. First, they should NOT drive to the school or location where the incident has occurred or is occurring. They should proceed to the reunification site. They should bring along their photo identification. And, finally, they should know that reunification can take time, and they should expect that they will need to be patient once they arrive. Reunification is a process that protects both the safety of the student and provides for an accountable change of custody from the school to a recognized custodial parent/guardian.

What if a parent can't pick up their student?
When a parent can’t immediately go to the reunification site, students will only be released to individuals previously identified as a student’s emergency contact. Otherwise, the school district will hold students until parents can pick up their student.

What if the student drove to school?
There may be instances where a student may not be allowed to remove a vehicle from the parking lot of the school. In this case, parents are advised to come and pick up their student at the reunification site.

Student instructions:
For students, the school district will ask that students be orderly and quiet while waiting. Students may be asked to text a message to their parents or guardians. Students may also be asked to limit additional text messages while they are waiting. Keeping the cellular network usage at a minimum may be important for district staff and/or emergency personnel during a reunification.

Parent instructions:
Again, parents should not drive to the school or location where the incident is occurring or has occurred. Parents should drive to the reunification site and park where indicated. Parents will be asked to go to the check-in area and to form lines. While in line, parents will be asked to complete a reunification form. This form has two parts, which will be separated during the process of reunifying the parent with the student.

During reunification check-in, photo identification is reviewed, and staff will confirm the person picking up the student or students is authorized in the district’s student management system to do so. The form will be separated, and the parent will retain half of it. From the check-in area, parents will be directed to an area where parents and students will be reunited.