October 27, 2022

 

Dear CCSD Families and Community Members,

 

Next week, CCSD will be holding our fall in-service scheduled for Monday, October 31 and Tuesday, November 1.  Due to the number of school shootings that have taken place in the past year, CCSD will host Erin Terry, FBI Victim Specialist, for our in-service.  Erin Terry, accompanied by a number of her colleagues virtually, will be working with CCSD staff members on Monday, October 31 on four specific areas related to responding to a school shooting:

 

• Active Shooter Attack Preparedness and Prevention (ASAAP)
• Mass Violence Incident (MVI) Victim Assistance
• Federal Crimes Against Children
• Responding to Vicarious Trauma and Compassion Fatigue

Although these topics can be difficult to engage in, it is imperative that all of us at CCSD have the most up-to-date information on how to appropriately respond during and after an active shooter attack. 

 

Additionally, CCSD will utilize our in-service to address three items related to school improvement and school safety:

 

• Develop draft strategies, tasks and metrics aligned with CCSD Board adopted strategic plan goals
• Review CCSD’s Emergency Operating Procedures
• Grow CCSD staff members’ awareness of effective practices related to Mandt

 

Included with this letter are the agendas and proposed outcomes for our in-service.  If you would like to join us for any part of our in-service, please just let me know so that we can ensure we have enough materials available.

   

Furthermore, CCSD has also been working on three major maintenance projects for each of our school buildings.  MRV Architects are developing 100% bid ready documents for our Craig Middle School and Craig Elementary School Rehabilitation Projects.  Both of these projects will update architectural, mechanical, electrical, safety, and ventilation systems. We are planning on going out for bid in November for both of these projects.  To date, CCSD has secured $6,297,917 for our CMS Rehabilitation Project and $2,117,210 for our CES Rehabilitation Project.  However, CCSD is concerned about the possibility that we will not have enough funding available to move forward with these two projects during the summer 2023 construction season due to world-wide supply chain issues and the significant escalation in costs we are seeing for supplies, materials, and shipping.  If the bids the district receives are above what we have secured for funding, the district will be working with the Alaska Legislature during the spring 2023 legislative session requesting supplemental funding for these two critical major maintenance projects.  CCSD has also recently received an additional $750,000 for our CHS biomass project.  To date the district has secured $1,605,000 in funding for this project.  CCSD is working with R&M Engineering, Inc. to develop bid ready documents for this project to move forward with an early winter bid process.  CCSD is extremely excited about the potential of these three projects.  These projects will ultimately increase the safety and efficiencies of our buildings, providing more monies that can ultimately be dedicated to the programs CCSD is able to provide to our students.  However, as noted above, there is some uncertainty in our current construction context about inflationary costs and issues with supply chain bottlenecks that could provide some complications with the ability of these projects moving forward in a timely fashion.  As more information becomes available about these three projects, the district will share this information immediately.

 

In closing, CCSD thanks our island community members for the support and guidance you have provided the district.  If you would like to discuss any of the items noted in this letter or any district initiative in greater detail, please don’t hesitate to call me at 826-3274 or email me at the address below.   I’d welcome the opportunity to continue the dialogue.

 

Chris Reitan, CCSD Superintendent 

Email: creitan@craigschools.com