CRCS Presents Safety Plan Changes

By Joshua Walther

COBLESKILL - Before their regular meeting on Monday evening, the CRCS Board of Education held a special public hearing to detail their required and recommended changes to their district emergency preparedness plan.

To begin, their biggest required update was the addition of a cardiac emergency response annex, which sought to bring staff awareness to AED locations and procedures for accessing help, as well as staff awareness around the warning signs of cardiac arrest and other life-threatening emergencies.

Staff will also be educated on response steps in a life-threatening emergency, outlining how to ensure scene safety, call for help, begin CPR, use an AED, transition the emergency to EMS, notify contacts, document the event, and a follow-up debrief.

In addition, Superintendent Matthew Sickles also revealed that they will be educating the students in each building on what an AED is and why it is used, with those lessons being aided by scaling grade-appropriate vocabulary and discussion topics.

Further required changes saw the addition of new mandates like Desha’s Law, implemented in July of 2025, protocols to confidential building-level plans in September of 2025, and the upcoming addition of district-level plans by the end of next January.

The biggest recommended changes were new protocols for before and after-school activities that are designed to apply safety plans to extended school hours.

Similarly, the plan also saw the implementation of new assessment and response protocols to threats, violence, suicide, and TIG integration.

Once the changes were covered, Superintendent Sickles elaborated on their next steps, saying that the public comment period will run from November 6th to December 7th, after which there is anticipated Board action for the safety plan on December 8th.

With no comments from the audience, the Board swiftly closed the public comment section of the meeting, although the district will still accept community input until the 7th of next month.