As the school year nears end and many educators are looking forward to the summer break, some of their colleagues are deep in planning for the next school year. Nearly 50 school district administrators recently gathered at Frisco ISD to focus on their disaster recovery plans for the future.  PCAT, Property Casualty Alliance of Texas, partnered with Agility Recovery to bring school districts an extraordinary opportunity to show how to get schools up and running and provide access to vital resources through a free, one-day seminar. During the workshop, attendees toured a live mobile installation staged with classroom/office space, power, communications and computers – the four key elements of recovery. Additionally, participants spent time developing their respective disaster recovery plans and learned how to prevent school closing equipment failures.

The workshop was led by PCAT Administrator Jack Melton, along with Josh Smith, Public Sector Manager for Agility Recovery, and co-sponsored by NAS, Scarbrough Medlin & Associates, Edwards Risk Management and Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB). According to Melton, schools and school district facilities often serve as the default communications/information hub in their neighborhoods and consequently play a crucial role in community relief efforts. Vital resources that must be quickly brought back on-line include power generators, fuel, mobile classroom/computing, satellite Internet and phone connectivity.

PCAT expects to host more workshops in the fall and qualifies for 3 TASBO CE credits. To learn more about PCAT, go here.