North Hills School District is committed to taking proactive measures to protect the safety of all our students and staff members. We have made preparations to deal effectively with emergency situations that could occur in or around the school while classes are in session. While we hope that a natural disaster or other serious incident never occurs, our goal is to be as prepared as possible for any potential emergency. Our priority at all times is to protect all students and staff from harm.

North Hills School District and all school facilities have crisis and safety plans. The plans are designed with the assistance of administrative staff members, as well as local law enforcement, emergency management, and public health officials. The plans, which are regularly reviewed and updated, include procedures to respond to a variety of crisis incidents. School district personnel and students practice drills associated with specific emergencies on a regular basis. Please review our Standard Response Protocol for more details on specific responses.

North Hills School District administrators consult with local, state and federal health, safety and emergency personnel to develop and maintain plans for coping with a variety of emergency situations. The district's Safety Team, made up of school administrators and staff and North Hills School Police officers, meets during the school year to discuss crisis response, management, prevention and communication. 

All NHSD facilities have an emergency preparedness plan. The response to each situation will differ based on the specifics of that situation. Flexibility of the plan is key to the success of the response. In general, each plan involves the designation of a building-level safety team, development of Standard Response Protocal procedure responses specific to each buildnig; preparation of a portable critical response kits that contain key information and supplies; designation of one or more appropriate evacuation sites; provisions for training personnel and updating the plan; checklists for dealing with specific types of incidents; and resources for help before, during and after an event. All NHSD school plans have been reviewed within the last 12 months, and school crisis teams have received training. 

If you have any questions about your school's safety responses, please contact your school principal.

• Website: https://www.safe2saypa.org/tip/ 
• Phone: 1-844-SAF2SAY (1-844-723-2729)
• Mobile App - Available for iOS and Android devices 

NHSD utilizes a variety of communication outlets including mass notification phone and text system, website, E-link, social media and district app. Families are encourage to subscribe, follow or like all district communication outlets to stay informed as detailed below. Emergency messages also are transmitted to the local media.

The use of these outlets will be determined based on the severity of the incident. For non-emergency issues, parents/guardians can expect to receive an email (based on their subscription to E-Link), an app push (based on the download and opt in for push notifications on the district app) and a building-specific website post.

In the event of an immediate school emergency that requires immediate attention and response from parent/guardians, parents/guardians will receive a phone call from NHSD’s mass phone and text system to the primary phone number listed with the school. Your caller ID will display “North Hills School District” and the District’s main number of 412-318-1000. The success of this system depends on accurate contact information obtained from school records. If your information has changed, please contact your student’s main office to update your contact information in PowerSchool.

Additional Resources for School Emergency Information:

• NHSD website
• E-Link
• Push Notifications from the NHSD App – Free for iOS and Android
• Twitter - @north_hills
• Facebook