Flagstaff schools have plans in place in case of monsoon flooding

FLAGSTAFF, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - Schools in Flagstaff aren’t immune to destructive burn scar flooding, but it’s a new year and district leaders have plans in place to keep your kids safe.

You may remember last August, students had to shelter in place for a least two hours after flooding at Killip Elementary School.

Most of the campus was also covered in mud. Now this week, Killip has a brand new campus! Superintendent Mike Penca says construction has been underway for years. They have partnered with the city to build detention basins which can hold and drain water now, even though they are still under construction.

READ MORE: New project underway to prevent monsoon flooding at Flagstaff school.

Penca says the new campus is also in a different location that’s raised in elevation. Sechrist Elementary School is another campus that can be impacted by flooding in the parking lot and also closures along highway 180, Penca said. He says the plan is a shelter-in-place response. Depending on the time of day, they would want to continue teaching and learning inside the school.

“We’ve always had emergency operations planned for a variety of situations,” Penca said. “We practice probably most often fire drills, we have lockdowns. But the shelter-in-place is something that’s part of our planning and is something we practice and teach our students about.”

When it comes to communicating with parents, Penca says they will let them know what’s going on with emails, texts, phone calls. So far this year there were some busing issues into some areas on the eastside of town, but no other major issues.

Penca says they are very excited for the new year, with around 9,000 students starting the year last week.

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