Health & Safety

The Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health program (MNOSHA) requires employers with higher-than-average injury and illness rates to develop a comprehensive written health and safety program. Although these programs are considered optional for most schools, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) has encouraged school districts to develop and implement accident and injury reduction programs and other health and safety management programs.

The purpose of A Workplace Accident and Injury Reduction Program (AWAIR) is to reduce employee injuries and illnesses by identifying, analyzing and controlling hazards. Under these programs, all accidents and near misses are to be investigated and measures are to be taken to correct problems. Employers are expected to develop and enforce mandatory safe work practices, while providing the equipment and safeguards necessary for employees to work safely. These plans must be communicated to employees so they can participate and take an active role in health and safety. Employers with more than 25 employees are expected to form a joint health and safety committee to involve employees in the program. 

The White Bear Lake Area School District has developed A Workplace Program for Accident and Injury Reduction (AWAIR) to establish and implement a written program promoting safe and healthful working conditions based on clearly stated goals and objectives. This program includes requirements covered under Minnesota Statutes 182.653, A Workplace Accident and Injury Reduction Act. In addition, written management programs have been developed and implemented for 27 other health and safety areas.

Program Goals

• Continuously reduce annual lost workday incident rate for each district location below level from previous year.
• Bring each building into compliance with applicable occupational safety and health (MNOSHA) regulations identified in health and safety audits.
• Implement continuing, effective health and safety programs to provide district employees with a safe and healthful workplace.
• Actively encourage district employee involvement in health and safety programs.

Program Objectives

• Assign responsibilities.
• Establish systems for identifying, analyzing and controlling hazards.
• Communicate program effectively and encourage employee participation.
• Investigate all incidents.
• Enforce safe work practices and rules.

Any questions concerning the AWAIR program can be directed Safety & Emergency Supervisor, Kevin Klecker at 651-407-7534 or email at kevin.klecker@isd624.org

Employees are encouraged to get involved in district health and safety programs. Health and safety information and training are provided to employees through this web site, employee handouts, and departmental training sessions. District employees are encouraged to speak up about their health and safety concerns. If questions or problems cannot be resolved at the building level, the Health and Safety Coordinator will assist in finding a prompt response and resolution. To improve employee compliance with requirements and participation in safety-related matters, the Health and Safety Committee members are asked to:

• Post copies of safety meeting minutes
• Ask coworkers for suggestions and input

• Communicate about safety issues and encourage safe behavior

To ensure safe work practices and rules are consistently enforced, the Health and Safety Coordinator oversees these measures:

• Enforcing safe work practices and rules consistently among district employees
• Retraining employees if initial training appears to be ineffective
• Enforcing and documenting progressive discipline program

The Health and Safety Coordinator oversees implementation and maintenance of health and safety management programs and MNOSHA compliance activities. Routine site visits and program reviews are conducted at each district location to verify compliance or identify hazardous conditions and work practices.

Written management programs have been developed for the following health and safety areas:

• Art Safety
• Asbestos Program
• AWAIR - Safety Committee (Accident & Injury Reduction Program)
• Bloodborne Pathogens Program
• Community Right-to-Know Program
• Compressed Gas Safety Program
• Confined Space Entry Program
• Emergency Action and Fire Prevention Program
• Employee Right-to-Know Program Program
• Ergonomics Program
• First Aid/CPR/AED Program
• Food Service Safety Program
• Hazardous Air Emissions (Boilers) Program
• Hazardous Waste Program
• Hearing Conservation Program
• Indoor Air Quality Program
• Integrated Pest Management Program
• Laboratory Safety - Chemical Hygiene Program
• Lead-in-Water & Lead-in-Paint Program
• Lockout/Tagout - Energy Control Program
• OSHA Inspections, 300 Logs
• Personal Protective Equipment Program
• Playground Safety Program
• Radon
• Respiratory Protection Program
• Technology Education Safety Program
• USTs/ASTs - Underground and Aboveground Storage Tanks
• Miscellaneous - Bleacher Safety

Hazardous Incident/Accident Investigations

All hazardous incidents ("near misses") and accidents are to be investigated and corrective actions taken. The Health and Safety Coordinator oversees health and safety investigations, including:

• Maintaining form(s) to report, document and analyze all incidents
• Promptly performing hazardous incident ("near miss") and accident investigations
• Implementing corrective actions to prevent repeat incidents

Hazard Controls

To implement and maintain required safety controls, steps taken by the Health and Safety Coordinator include:

• Assigning highest priority to safety-related maintenance work orders
• Overseeing purchase of needed controls such as equipment/product replacement
• Overseeing purchase of appropriate personal protective equipment; providing additional employee training as needed

White Bear Lake Area Schools uses the Vector Learning platform to complete required safety and FERPA training.

Access Your Required Training

• Go to whitebear.mn.safeschools.com.
• Sign in using your District email address as your username (for example, joe.trainer@isd624.org).
• Your required courses will appear on your personal Vector Learning Dashboard under Mandatory Training.
• Select a course to begin. Complete all training modules and the assessment to receive credit. You may print a Certificate of Completion after successfully finishing each course.
• For more information about the District's health and safety programs, including the Bloodborne Pathogen Exposure Packet, visit the District website or contact:

Goals & Activities

The District has chosen to develop a joint management-labor Environmental Safety and Health Committee. The Health and Safety Coordinator maintains records of committee activities, including meeting minutes and documentation of follow-up activities. The Environmental Safety and Health Committee meets every other month during the school year.

The goals of the committee and corresponding activities are as follows:

• Goal: To represent District employees on health and safety matters. To help communicate program details and encourage employee involvement in the District health and safety programs.
  • Activities:
    • Obtain commitment from district administration to achieve and maintain committee representation from each school as well as each department
    • Encourage regular attendance by representatives for each building
    • Communicate committee activities to district employees
    • Bring back questions and concerns from coworkers to committee
    • Encourage District employees to report health and safety problems and complaints
• Goal: To reduce work-related accidents and illnesses among District employees, by identifying and analyzing hazards, and recommending control strategies.
  • Activities:
    • Discuss trends in accidents/illnesses and analyze OSHA 300 Log Summary information
    • Identify district-wide strategies for prevention and control
    • Evaluate successes of prevention and control strategies
• Goal: To monitor District compliance with applicable health and safety regulations, and encourage enforcement of safe work practices and rules.  
  • Activities:
    • Discuss results of mock MNOSHA audits, agency inspections, and compliance activities
    • Recommend district-wide activities to achieve or maintain compliance.
• Goal: To enhance district emergency planning and response best practices.
  • Activities:
    • Act as liaison between the safety committee and your Building Emergency Response Team
      (BERT)
    • Communicate training opportunities and training resources
    • Identify and share challenges in maintaining a safe, secure, and prepared environment
    • Recommend changes, new ideas, and/or innovative solutions to better secure our buildings
    • Discuss results and challenges encountered in your buildings' lockdown, fire, and severe weather drills

Responsibilities

The District AWAIR program is managed by the Health and Safety Coordinator with oversight by a district-wide Environmental Health and Safety Committee. Responsibilities for implementation of District health and safety programs are assigned as follows:

Health and Safety Coordinator

• Requests funding to maintain effective health and safety programs
• Oversees and coordinates implementation of AWAIR program
• Provides new employee orientation
• Monitors program effectiveness, revising program as necessary
• Evaluates and updates AWAIR program annually
• Conducts routine inspections
• Performs follow-up to verify problems are corrected promptly
• Oversees accident and incident investigations
• Oversees Job Hazard Analyses (JHAs)
• Oversees scheduling of health and safety meetings/training sessions
• Encourages and reinforces employee participation in health and safety matters

Environmental Health and Safety Committee Members 

• Attend committee meetings
• Complete assigned tasks determined by committee (inspections, job hazard assessments, accident investigations, etc.)
• Post copies of minutes
• Ask co-workers for suggestions and input
• Communicate about safety issues and encourage safe behavior
• Recommend corrections and follow up to be sure actions are taken

District Employees

• Provide comments, ideas, and suggestions about safety
• Report all accidents and incidents
• Attend required safety training and meetings

To help prepare us to respond properly in the event of an emergency - our district conducts emergency drills annually. Each site conducts 5 lockdown drills, 5 fire drills, and 1 tornado/severe weather drill.

We follow the Standard Response Protocol.