SAFETY COMMITTEE PROCEDURES
The district safety committee shall consist of at least six people. The membership of the committee shall be composed of certificated and classified district employees and community members as designated by the school administration.
The safety committee shall meet at least once in every three month period of operation or more often if necessary to review safety conditions within the school district or to respond to unresolved employee complaints concerning safety in the workplace.
In addition to the safety committee, there will be a crisis intervention team that will act in cooperation with the safety committee. The purpose of the crisis team is to provide competent leadership, compassionate support, and necessary information for members of our school and community during a crisis situation. A crisis is defined an as atypical situation which temporarily causes disruption in the school routine and is likely to cause emotional turmoil for staff, students and community members. Examples of a crisis may include death, accidents causing severe injuries, potential life-threatening situations, natural disasters, i.e. tornados, epidemic illnesses, or violence.
The safety committee shall meet during the work day. All meetings shall be announced by the safety committee chairperson.
The duties of the chairperson shall be to record the proceedings and produce minutes in readable form. Once the minutes of the meeting have been created they shall be filed with the superintendent of schools. It shall thereafter be the duty of the superintendent of schools to maintain a file of such minutes for a period of at lest three years after the date of the meeting covered by that set of minutes.
It shall be the duty of the secretary of the safety committee to make known to the superintendent of schools, the board of education, and to all employees of the school district the name, telephone number, and the business address of each safety committee member. The secretary shall make known to the superintendent of schools and each employee of the district any changes which may occur in the membership of the safety committee.
It shall be the duty of the superintendent and the safety committee to prepare and follow an injury prevention program with the goal of effectively assisting in preventing job related injuries or death.
The program will follow a training matrix established to address:
- Work place dangers
- Anticipating possible causes of injuries or illnesses or possible death in the workplace.
- Methods and strategies to avoid job related injuries or illnesses and death.
The safety program shall address safety training as follows:
- Initial safety orientation of rules, policies, and specific procedures involved in jobs, shall be presented to employees new to the work in a manner that is readily understood by each employee.
- Specific job training for employees before they perform work that has been identified as potentially dangerous by the superintendent of schools.
- Periodic refresher training and dissemination of information on at least an annual basis for employees concerning the district's injury prevention program as it may be modified by the safety committee, on safety rules, policies, and procedures identified by the superintendent of schools.
It shall be the duty of the safety committee to develop and review “The Emergency Procedure Guide.” Issues addressed in “The Emergency Procedure Guide”, will include but not be limited to:
- Media Procedure, Hazardous Material
- Shootings, Armed Intruders, Hostage Situations
- Evacuation and Sheltering in Place
- Bomb Threats, fights and assaults
- Severe Weather and Tornados
These procedures are not intended to place any greater duties on the district than is provided by law pertaining to the employer/employee relationship. Additionally, nothing in this procedure shall be construed to require duplication of training or disclosure of dangers that have already been done by the school district or are being done by the school district in such areas as but not limited to blood borne pathogens, training, and policy development. All communications of the safety committee shall be advisory in nature and shall have no binding effect.
The safety committee may adopt, reject, or modify the district's safety plan. If the safety committee amends or rejects the district's plan the safety committee shall communicate the amended plan to the administration within five (5) working days of such modification or rejection. If the safety committee rejects the district's plan it shall have a duty to develop a plan of its own within forty-five (45) working days of its receipt of the district's safety program. Additionally, upon receipt of notice that the safety committee has accepted the district's safety program or upon on the receipt by the administration of the amended safety committee program or upon receipt of a program developed by the safety committee after the safety committee's rejection of the district's plan, the superintendent of schools shall communicate to all employees, including non-English speaking employees, the safety rules, policies, and procedures and any changes to such rules, policies, and procedures.
If the safety committee has rejected the district's safety plan, or amended it in a manner unacceptable to the superintendent of schools, the superintendent of schools shall develop safety rules and procedures which shall include both general workplace safety and job site specific safety rules. In any event, such rules and procedures of the district shall be communicated to all employees as described herein.
The safety committee may review all deaths and recordable injuries or illnesses which are job related to the school district.
After such review, and when appropriate, the committee may make written recommendations regarding future prevention. Such safety committee review shall not supersede normal federal enforcement of insurance investigations that may take place. Such recommendations shall be considered by school officials but shall not be binding on the school district. Nothing in this procedure shall be construed to relieve the school district of its duty to report any workplace deaths to OSHA or the Nebraska Department of Labor's Division of Safety and Labor Standards.
An employee representative from the safety committee or such other person as the safety committee may designate, shall accompany a state representative during any Department of Labor inspection of the premises of the school district.
It shall be the policy of the school district to in no manner retaliate or in any other manner unlawfully discriminate against any employee who has made any oral or written complaint to the safety committee or to any governmental agency having regulatory responsibility pertaining to the occupational safety and health issue. Any employee making such a complaint shall not be financially or in any other manner punished for making such complaint. Nothing in this policy shall be construed to vest any complaining employee with any right greater than that which the employee has, based upon the employee's employment relationship with the school district at the time such complaint was made.
