First Selectman Pat Llodra and School Superintendent Joseph Erardi, Jr appeared before Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission Friday, September 12, at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

In addition to receiving presentations from the panel’s Mental Health Working Group, Safe School Design and Operations Working Group, and Law Enforcement Working Group, Mrs Llodra and Dr Erardi, each provided testimony, touching on a wide range of subjects related to Newtown’s recovery efforts post 12/14.

The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission is Governor Malloy’s 16-member panel of experts tasked with reviewing current policies and making specific recommendations in the areas of public safety, with particular attention paid to school safety, mental health, and gun violence prevention. 

 According to transcripts of the officials’ testimonies provided to The Newtown Bee, Dr Erardi said his mission has not changed since the day he was welcomed to the District by the Board of Education.

“I said I would always be respectful to the past, work hard in the moment for all children, and as a community, in partnership, build the Newtown Public Schools’ future,” before telling the Goveror’s panel that his remarks Friday morning would be drawn from his on-site experience since his first day on the job in early April.

Dr Erardi said his remarks would highlight, “communication, partnerships, and the present rebuild of what I believe is an extraordinary school system filled with equally extraordinary staff, parents, and students.”

Beginning with communication, the superintendent said he is trying to set an example by having a daily hour, every day, five days a week, for staff, parents, elected and appointed officials, to meet with him in his office with no appointment necessary. 

“I have found the parents who experienced the tragic loss of a child to be simply amazing people,” Dr. Erardi related. “My work with the (Sandy Hook) families will remain confidential; however, I just want you to know that I find myself speechless with their courage, and with their willingness to share their thoughts with me as we look to always enhance our security and safety plan.”

Partnerships Defined

The Newtown school leader said his primary partnerships begin with the Board of Education and through the First Selectmen’s office, “as Pat Llodra has worked tirelessly for children.”

He then related other partnerships including with the state and federal Departments of Education, the Department of Justice, and on the local front, “with the Town of Monroe, and more specifically, with the Monroe Board of Education and the Police Department as Sandy Hook remains in Monroe for the next two school years.”

“The recovery of the district must be done with all community stakeholders owning the outcome,” Dr Erardi said, adding that through these partnerships, he and the many involved stakeholders are helping “rebuild Newtown Public Schools, rebuilding with dignity - one student at a time.”

He also related a few points that came from a team meeting of 30 Sandy Hook staff members he met with in July to share “lessons learned.” Because of the sensitivity to the discussion, the superintendent only shared what he called “broad strokes of the meeting,” which included:

*The need to have a sound and ongoing partnership with local safety officials;

*The need to have meaningful and challenging emergency drills;

*The need to have everyone emergency trained including every aspect of the staff:

*The need to have every school board in the country understand that dedicated funds must be available to appropriately harden a school building, and;

*The need to have an effective communication protocol in place during an event (like Sandy Hook faced).

“I would suggest to all of my colleagues across the country to never, ever, get comfortable with school safety or security,” Dr Erardi said in closing comments. “There is no one plan fits all. A dynamic plan, my belief, is a plan that is built one-percent at a time without ever believing you have crossed the finish line.”

Llodra Testimony

Mrs Llodra told the commission she had read their Interim Report and has followed the testimony of others who have appeared.

“I see positive effects of your recommendations already taking hold in the culture and practice of schooling,” the first selectman told the panel. “Your efforts have moved the needle in a positive direction in terms of enhancing the security of school facilities, elevating and standardizing training protocols for school personnel, and focusing our attention on the need to grow our capacity for risk assessment and mitigation.” 

Mrs Llodra said she reached out to several key Newtown personnel in preparation for her appearance.

She said both Police Chief Michael Kehoe and Director of Communications Maureen Will raised an issue about mutual aid, questioning whether there are specific laws that protect the helping agency and also give the responding mutual aid agency the authority to act within an incident setting.

“Aid for us on December 14 and weeks thereafter came not just from our regional partners but from agencies statewide, thus prompting the question of our chief whether adequate protections are in place and if those agencies have the needed authority to act.”

She said Ms Will requested that Telecommunications Emergency Response Team (TERT) training and certification of dispatchers to serve in mutual aid situations be approved and funded through the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS) or the state.

Mrs Llodra said Newtown’s emergency communications director hopes to ensure that in times of need, emergency dispatch switchboards have the best of communicators responding in mutual aid and that those persons have the appropriate legal protections and authority to serve.

She told the panel that Emergency Management Director and Chief of the Sandy Hook Fire Chief William Halstead wanted to underscore the importance of DEMHS, and noted that help from the regions was critical and powerful in handling the large scale incident.

Mrs Llodra then related Regional Health District Director Donna Culbert’s call to make mental health support part of standard operating procedures, and not just to address a specific mental health condition or in response to an incident or tragedy.

“She asks that mental health support be integrated into action planning for every event, for every incident,” Mrs Llodra said of Ms Culbert’s comments. “The characteristics of the support system would be best defined by the event but, nevertheless, should be part of what happens naturally and not an add on.”

Onslaught Of Assistance

The first selectman said she shared the health official’s concerns.

“There was a lot of noise and confusion in the early hours and days about mental health support,” Mrs Llodra said. “Many, many therapists and clinicians came to our town – all well-meaning and anxious to serve. We had no way to vet the credentials of these many providers and there were many mixed opinions about what levels and kinds of trainings were appropriate in these circumstances.” 

Mrs Llodra told the Governor’s panel that it took many days to sort out a process, and that conflicts in thinking – and in the delivery of services – went on for weeks and weeks. 

“Frankly, it felt at times that there was a lot of jockeying for position among the various providers. We simply were overwhelmed by the numbers and by the absence of any system to organize an effective and efficient mental health program,” she said. 

While not criticizing anyone who came to Newtown’s aid, Mrs Llodra said there needs to be “a single state agency (among the several dedicated to mental health) to be identified as the right and best agents to take the lead in these circumstances.”

Mrs Llodra then reviewed three other areas of concern:

*The importance of the One Fund concept – while many millions of dollars came to Newtown from donors all over the world, Mrs Llodra said decisions for those funds has been problematic; and “has created significant conflict – which I believe endures and may in fact be a permanent fracture among some in our community.” 

She said a town government should not be put in the position to try to arbitrate differences in distribution criteria, or be the conduit for funds. 

*Donations of goods and services – for many days and weeks after December 14, our community was the recipient of great generosity.

“Town department heads and staff worked full time at the warehouse for almost three months,” Mrs Llodra recalled. “The inventory of more than 100,000 item donations was so overwhelming, she told the panel that Microsoft had to “help design and implement an inventorying systems so that we could manage the product load.”

In addition, she related that the volume of mail was so great that sorting and distribution was set up by US Post Office personnel in the town hall basement to help process “more than 200,000 individual pieces of mail which were then sorted by volunteers organized by our town staff.” 

“None of us regret the time we spent helping in these small ways, but the business of running the town was severely impacted,” Mrs Llodra said.

The Sandy Hook tragedy forced many Newtown officials to quickly learn how to work with media. She credited several General Electric staff members assigned to support the town and school administrations with helping to deflect, qualify and administer media inquiries.

“Were it not for that help, again, we would have drowned by the sheer volume of (media) requests,” she said.   

The first selectman told the panel she hopes to generate interest at the state-level to conduct a full after-action study.

“I would like nothing more than to prevent any future tragedy such as what was experienced at our Sandy Hook School,” Mrs Llodra said. “But, probabilities and possibilities tell me that there will be no such guarantee. Lets throw everything we have at prevention, but, at the same time, lets be prepared better to manage in a crisis should one come our way.”

Information on the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, including details on how to contact its members and documents from each of their meetings, can be found online at www.ct.gov/SHAC.