Pleasant Lea and Summit Lakes Middle School students planning to attend the schools’ 2014 Costa Rica tour recently organized a fundraiser during April Recycling Month. The students collected old cell phones, ink cartridges, e-readers, iPods and other equipment to be recycled with Ecophones company.

The students collected over 450 used products in just three weeks at PLMS and SLMS. Pictured during the fundraiser are (from left) Connor Lovelace, Alecia Christensen, Lexi Stiers-Seacreas, Isabella Hess, Sam Leyerle and Brielle Beavers.

Following the May 20 tornado devastation in central Oklahoma, the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District is providing staff and community with information about regular plans and procedures related to tornado preparation.

R-7 schools and facilities routinely practice tornado and other emergency drills, and all district buildings have tornado shelter areas designated. Following the Joplin tornado in May 2011, all shelter areas were thoroughly evaluated to ensure that they are large enough to hold each school’s students and staff members. This review also focused on making sure that the shelters are the safest locations within the building. In addition, all school shelters are compliant with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommendations released following the 2011 Joplin tornado.

District staff and students will continue to take shelter anytime a tornado warning is activated for the Lee’s Summit area. During a tornado warning, all R-7 schools and other facilities will be locked down. No students or staff members will be allowed to leave the shelter area until the warning has expired. District officials emphasized that school tornado shelters are among the safest locations for students. For this reason, parents will not be allowed to pick up their children from school while a warning is underway.

When students and staff members take cover in shelter areas during tornado warnings, all parents will receive a phone call through the district’s automated calling system (known as SchoolMessenger). This call will notify parents that their children have been moved to the shelter. A second call will go to parents to notify them that the warning has expired and that students and school staff are returning to classrooms.

The recorded phone calls will also inform parents that students will not be released from school during the warning. In addition, school staff members will not be answering the office telephones since they are all required to report to the shelter areas for their own safety.

School staff members made a difference

Dr. David McGehee’s latest Superintendent’s Blog discusses the devastating tornado in Oklahoma. To read the blog, visit http://lsr7supt.blogspot.com/