The fact that the River Islands Technology Academy is having a fire drill this morning isn’t necessarily noteworthy.
But the way that they’re doing it – incorporating a smoke machine to simulate the actual experience of evacuating after a fire breaks out on campus – certainly is.
Today the charter elementary school that serves the River Islands community will utilize a non-toxic smoke machine borrowed from the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District to help give students a realistic experience when going through the process of evacuating their classrooms and moving to a safe location away from where the fire happens to be located.
The fire district, which was contacted by school officials for clearance and to find out whether they felt it would be a good idea to help familiarize students with the experience of reacting to smoke in an emergency situation, praised the campus in a Facebook post Wednesday evening. The brief post, which was carried with a “fire drill” logo, dubbed the unique twist “progressive school safety” and gave “kudos” to the school staff for thinking outside of the box on ways to help keep students safe.
The River Islands Technology Academy, located at 1175 Marina Drive in Lathrop’s River Islands master planned community, is located just on the River Islands side of the Bradshaw Crossing Bridge that connects the Mossdale Landing subdivision with what will become a residential tract that will more than double the size of Lathrop’s current population once it’s completed.
The independent charter campus – which is served by a Board of Education that features Susan Dell’Osso of River Islands as its president – utilizes enhanced technology in the classroom to give students a unique hands-on experience different than what they would find in a traditional classroom. The school is a uniform academy, and lists on its website the “college bound” focus of its instruction.
The school is one of two charter school sites in River Islands – the other, the Next Generation STEAM Academy, operating under the auspices of the Banta Elementary School District.
All high school age students in River Islands are within the boundaries of the Tracy Unified School District.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.