Dear Families,

Welcome back and Happy New Year! We were so excited to see all of our children return energized and excited to continue their learning. As we near the end of the first semester, we would like to thank each of you for your support so far this year. We are so proud of the hard work and dedication that our students and families show each day.

As you know, we take the safety of our students, staff and families very seriously. We recently had our interim safety audit. Due to the hard work and dedication of our teachers and staff, we again were commended on our safety practices. They often remind us that what you do in a practice drill is what you will do in an emergency.
 
We will be hosting a Principal's coffee about Internet Safety on February 28th at 8:30 in the library. During this time, Mrs. Weidele and Mrs. Vick will share information about internet safety for children. More information about this meeting will be coming home soon. If you have questions about the safety audit or any other matters regarding Echo Lake please don’t hesitate to contact me at jlbrinkmann@henrico.k12.va.us

Listed below are some questions we are often asked about safety at Echo Lake.

What is the safety audit? A team of 6 individuals from the community including a fire marshal, retired school administrators, a Henrico County Police officer, and central office personnel who review all schools safety practices, crisis manuals and procedures. This audit takes place every 3 years. As part of the audit process schools are given commendations and recommendations to improve their safety procedures. The audit team monitors this through an annual interim audit.

What were Echo Lake’s Commendations? Again we were recognized for our Watch DOGS program and our Dolphin Reading Buddies program. We were recognized for our accountability procedures during all safety drills. We were commended on our Dolphin Code as well as communication systems with parents (connect Ed, PTA Newsletters and school website). Echo Lake also received commendations for our positive relationship with the police and fire departments. As you know we work very closely with these departments in planning for our safety drills as well as our overall procedures in the school. Commendations were also received for our practices in the clinic and with our staff training programs.
 

Are there any changes in safety procedures? Each year we work as a school division to improve our procedures. We do not have any changes but we do have some additions that parents should be aware of. The first is a reunification plan in the event of an early dismissal due to an emergency. The second is a reminder about parking at the school and morning drop off procedures.

Family Re-unification Plan: The Echo Lake family re-unification plan is only in the event of a dismissal due to an emergency (not early dismissal because of inclement weather). In an emergency situation it is important for us to account for all children, especially if we need to relocate to a different building. We would begin releasing students as soon as we are authorized to release students. In order to pick a child up we ask that you be patient and prepared for the following:

• You must be on the authorized pick up list
• You must provide photo identification (even if we know you we will have to see this!)
• You will be asked to report to a designated table arranged by grade level
• If you have children in multiple grades, please report to the grade level of the youngest child first.

Morning Drop off and Parking Reminders

• Students drop off begins at 7:20 in the morning. There is a new sign to remind parents that drop off begins at 7:20 AM.
• Please be aware that the area in front of the building is a fire lane. There is no parking in this area at any time (day, night or weekends). We don’t want anyone to get a ticket from the Henrico County Police for parking in front of school buildings because this is a fire lane.
• We continue to encourage all students to ride the bus to school. For those of you who live close and do not have an assigned bus we ask that you please adhere to the morning arrival routine.
• All students need to unload on the passenger side of the car as soon as you stop at the yellow line. We will ask you to do this in all types of weather, so please dress accordingly.
• If you chose to park, please do so in designated parking spots and walk your child across the parking lot.

Thank you for partnering with us to keep all children safe.  If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 527-4672 or jlbrinkmann@henrico.k12.va.us. 

Sincerely,

Jodie Brinkmann

Principal