In the event of inclement weather or an emergency situation, the Lancaster County Career & Technology Center takes every precaution to ensure the safety of our students. Our staff work continually with local police, sheriffs, fire departments, and emergency management teams to improve and fine-tune emergency plans.
Emergency Contact Information
During an emergency, please do not call the school, transportation department, or school offices. If the phone lines are working, they are to be used only for official emergency communication.
The school will keep parents and the public informed through the Public Schools Emergency Communications System on the following radio and television stations:
- WLAN 96.9 FM
- WLAN 1490 AM
- WGAL TV Channel 8
In addition, the One Call automated parent notification system can rapidly alert parents of weather-related school closures or changes in start or dismissal times. One Call has the capacity to reach all families in a given school, or the entire district, within minutes. In an emergency, the system is programmed to call the home and work phone numbers of parents/guardians listed in the student’s enrollment information.
In a non-emergency situation, if you have questions about potential emergencies or preparedness, call your child’s school office. You can also call the center at 717-464-7050.
Emergency Operations Center
Each school has a centralized Emergency Response Team (ERT). These ERTs have developed plans for a variety of crises including fire, earthquakes, shelter-in-place, and intruders. We hold regular drills with our students to prepare them for emergency situations.
As a part of these emergency plans, our staff are trained to respond to these various incidents.
The Lancaster County Career & Technology Center will continue to make every effort to communicate the status of emergency plans to parents and the community. Our number one priority is always the safety and security of students.
Inclement Weather Policy
Due to situations beyond our control, we sometimes need to close schools or modify start times. Reasons for closures and delays include:
- Severe weather (snow or ice)
- Loss of electricity (due to downed power lines or utility brown-out for a given area)
- Water loss (water main break, contaminated water supply)
Closures and delays are determined by the actions taken by the majority of sending school districts (nine or more districts). For example, if nine or more school districts close, we will also close. Closures typically involve all campuses. However, occasionally there is a need to close down an individual school due to an isolated problem.
One Call
The Lancaster County Career & Technology Center utilizes One Call, a telephone broadcasting service, to keep our parents better informed. The program allows us to contact thousands of households within a short amount of time. While this system can be used to contact parents during emergency situations, it will also be used for regular announcements and upcoming events.
This is a very important step for our schools and the families that we serve. After all, research indicates that parent involvement is one of the most important—if not the most important—indicator of student success. One of the first steps of parent involvement, of course, is for the principal and teachers to let parents know what is happening at school.
The Lancaster County Career & Technology Center will continue to report school closings due to snow or weather on local radio and television stations and will use this system as an overlay to the public announcements.
One Call simultaneously calls all phone numbers on our parent contact list and delivers a message. The service delivers the message to both live answer and answering machines. No-answers and busies are automatically re-tried twice in 15 minute intervals after the initial call. It does not call duplicate numbers, so parents will not get multiple phone calls if they have children on the same calling list.
This service requires no registration by the parent on the One Call website. All information and contact numbers are strictly secure and confidential and are used only for the purposes described above.
For this service and for many other reasons, it is extremely important that each child’s school has the most up-to-date contact information for their family. If parents have not contacted the school about a changed or new telephone number, please do so immediately. We are only able to call the numbers that we have been given.
Here is specific information parents should know to help make the phone calls more successful:
Caller ID
The Caller ID will display the school’s main number. A phone call from the campus office will display: 717-859-5100 (Brownstown), 717-653-3000 (Mount Joy) or 717-464-7050 (Willow Street), which are the main numbers for the respective campuses. If you call the number, it will simply place a phone call to the school; it will not repeat the message.
Live Answers
There is a short pause at the beginning of the message, usually just a few seconds. Answer your phone as you normally would: “Hello” and hold for the message to begin. Multiple “hellos” will delay the message. Inform all family members who may answer your phone of this process.
Voicemail
The system will detect that your machine has answered and will play the recording to your machine. The maximum number of rings before hang-up is five. Make sure your machine answers after four rings or you may miss the message.
Message Repeat
At the end of the message you will be prompted to “press one” to hear the message again. This is effective when a child answers the phone and hands it to a parent, who can then repeat the message in its entirety.
For more information about One Call, please contact an administrator at your child’s school:
- Brownstown: 717-859-5100
- Mount Joy: 717-653-3000
- Willow Street: 717-464-7050
Shelter-In-Place
The Center Emergency Response Center (ERC) and building ERC teams have developed plans which cover a variety of crises, including fire, earthquakes, and intruders.
As part of these emergency plans, we have trained key personnel in the schools to respond to incidents that might require sheltering-in-place. The shelter-in-place plan protects students and staff in the event of potential exposure to a dangerous chemical that could be released through:
- An industrial accident
- A chemical spill
- A break in a natural gas pipeline
- Materials transported through our community
- A terrorist attack
The shelter-in-place plan has proven to be a safer approach than evacuating students into a potentially contaminated outdoor environment. Generally, the duration of these situations would last minutes or hours, not days.
Should one of these situations occur during the school day, we would be directed by Lancaster County Emergency Management or other public health and safety officials to bring all students and staff members into predetermined areas. All heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems would be shut down and all doors and windows would be closed and secured. On the advice of local emergency personnel, no one would be allowed in or out of a building until the authorities give the all-clear signal.
Access to Students During Shelter-In-Place
For many parents, your first instinct will be to come to the school to check on your child or take him or her home. However, to ensure the safety of our students during the shelter-in-place period, we will not be opening our doors to anyone. As a parent, we recognize how hard this would be. Please know that this action is based on the best advice and counsel we have from all local, state, and national officials. So, as you plan to shelter yourself at home or at work, please know that we will be taking good care of your child by doing the same.
Equipment, Supplies, and Information
In preparation for sheltering-in-place, the Lancaster County Career & Technology Center is supporting our school sites by providing:
- Supply kits to each building site for any shelter-in-place incident.
- Enhanced district-wide emergency communications systems to allow for building-to-building communications via our hand-held radios and cell phones.
- The latest information and communications related to emergency situations in the emergency information overview section of this page.
Special Support Assistance
There is also a plan in place for students who might require further support assistance. Principals, counselors, and teachers are available to listen, to be there for questions, and to ease concerns.