Caledonia Catch Up - October 30, 2026
This week, I want to take a moment to share some important information regarding our school’s safety procedures. Our school, just like every other school in Black Gold School Division, uses the Hour Zero emergency preparedness program. I want to assure you that these protocols are not something to fear. In fact, having these procedures in place gives us a highly reliable, standardized system and a common language with all of our wrap-around services, such as local police, fire, and medical first responders. This shared understanding allows us to act quickly, calmly, and effectively in the midst of any situation.
To ensure our students and staff are prepared, we practice these protocols often through routine drills. By running these drills regularly, we ensure that in the event of an actual emergency, everyone already knows exactly what to do. To help you understand the terminology we use, here is a brief breakdown of our core protocols.
We use a Shelter in Place to keep everyone safe inside the building. While you might associate this with severe weather or a chemical spill outside, we also use it for medical episodes inside the school so we can limit hallway traffic, giving the individual privacy and first responders clear access.
A Hold and Secure is called when there is a potential emergency in the surrounding neighborhood. We lock the exterior doors and monitor access, but regular classes continue normally inside.
If there is ever an immediate threat inside the building, we use a Lock-Down, where students and staff are secured in locked rooms and remain out of sight until cleared by law enforcement.
Finally, an Evacuation is used when it is no longer safe to remain inside, and we move everyone to a designated safe location.
Please know that we never activate these protocols for no reason. Whenever a situation arises that requires an Hour Zero response, an email notification must go out to our parent community and the Black Gold Division office so they can provide us with support in a variety of capacities. However, our absolute first priority is always the immediate physical and emotional safety of our students and staff. Communication to parents will always come after we have secured the building and ensured everyone is safe.
When we do send out notifications, the communication to the general public will always be general in nature to protect privacy. If your child is ever directly affected by an incident, we will reach out to you individually and directly. Thank you for your continued partnership in keeping our school a safe, secure, and welcoming place for all our students to learn.
