The New York City Emergency Management Department and the Department of Education will present the Ready School of the Year Award to Principal Tara O’Brien, I.A., at P.S. 207 in Bronx, for its outstanding commitment to preparedness education.
The Ready School of the Year Award is presented annually by NYC Emergency Management and the NYC Department of Education to a school with exemplary commitment to emergency preparedness.
During the 2016-2017 school year, P.S. 207 experienced a flood in its kitchen which required a complete evacuation. The school had a dedicated building response team with Go Bags at the ready and sprang into action. Students were safely relocated to a neighboring school for the day. Following this incident, Principal OBrien I.A. and her staff designed an English Language Arts unit of study dedicated to safety, in which students created posters, wrote persuasive essays, designed brochures, and created scripts for safety videos.
“The teachers and students at P.S. 207 knew the importance of having an emergency plan, andthey were prepared when they had to put that plan into action,” said NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Joseph Esposito. “For their commitment to emergency preparedness, we are proud to honor P.S. 207 with the 2017 Ready School of the Year Award.”
With a strong commitment to safety and emergency preparedness, Principal O’Brien I.A. and Acting Assistant Principal Andrea Feldman have instituted several safety and preparedness initiatives since being assigned to P.S. 207 in the fall of 2016.
“P.S. 207 has undergone many significant changes over the 2016-2017 school year. In August of 2016, after being identified by the state as a persistently dangerous school, our community came together to hi-light the importance of safety in the lives of our children,” said Principal Assigned Tara O’Brien. “As a new administrative team, we have placed tremendous emphasis on the importance of working collaboratively with the community to create a child-centered, engaging, safe and supportive learning environment. Based on the progress made, we are being recommended by the NYC Department of Education for removal from the persistently dangerous list as of the summer of 2017. We are grateful and proud that these changes have been noted by NYC Emergency Management.”
During the 2016-2017 school year, NYC Emergency Management’s Ready New York program hosted over 200 presentations in NYC schools and trained more than 28,000 students in preparedness. These included providing schools with Ready Kids Guides, which are available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, Haitian Creole, Korean, as well as an audio format available to parents and teachers on the NYC.gov/ReadyNY website.
About the Ready Schools Initiative
During fall 2007, NYC Emergency Management and DOE launched the Ready New York for Kids preparedness program. In 2008, NYC Emergency Management and DOE created a curriculum for children and teens to educate them on the importance of preparedness. To date, NYC Emergency Management staff have visited 700 schools, conducted 1,200 workshops and assemblies, and trained more than 120,000 students.
Ready Schools focuses on three key messages:
Captions:
Image 1: NYC Emergency Management (NYCEM) and the NYC Department Of Education (DOE) present the 2017 Ready School Of The Year award to P.S. 207 Principal Assigned Tara OBrien and Acting Assistant Principal Andrea Feldman. From Left NYCEM Youth Outreach Coordinator (and emergency management superhero Ready Girl) Katelyn James, NYCEM Deputy Commissioner of External Affairs Christina Farrell, DOE Deputy Superintendent Yvette Sy, Principal Assigned Tara OBrien, DOE Chief Executive Officer John Shea, Acting Assistant Principal Andrea Feldman.
Image 2: Students from P.S. 207 in the Bronx were presented the 2017 Ready School Of The Year award during an assembly Monday (6/5) morning. The school dedicated an entire unit of study to safety and emergency preparedness education following a flood in November 2016 that required all 350+ students to temporarily evacuate to another school. Each class presented a two-minute video focused on safety and preparedness during the assembly.
