Calendar

NBOA 2024 Annual Conference

Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 3 PM

Emerging Strategies for Enhanced Campus Security

Campus security continues to be an important element of independent school life, ensuring the safety and well-being of students, faculty, staff and visitors. This session will take the form of a panel discussion incorporating both a safety security consultant and schools presenting their strategies for managing campus security. Examples of various security protocols include implementing access control systems, conducting regular safety drills, installing surveillance cameras, establishing emergency response plans, employing security personnel (both unarmed and armed), conducting background checks, and promoting a culture of vigilance and reporting of suspicious individuals and activities.

Co-presented with Ronald Wanglin.

CAIS Trustee/School Head Conference 2024

Saturday, Jan 27, 2024, 2:45 PM

Empowering School Leaders: Framework for Emergency Response

Empower school leaders with actionable strategies for crisis response during the first 7 seconds, 7 minutes, and 7 hours of any emergency. This session explores backward planning and dissects critical components to strengthen a school's resilience in an emergency.

EARCOS 53rd Annual Leadership Conference 2023

Thu, Oct 26, 2023 through Sat, Oct 28, 2023

Putting the puzzle pieces together to detect threats and make communities safer

Join us for an immersive session where we realize, quite literally, how the puzzle pieces we hold can be meaningless alone and transformational when put together. These literal puzzle pieces represent the metaphorical pieces of information we learn and hold onto every day. If successful at using the strategies learned during our session, participants will be able to see the whole picture once the pieces come together.

Building security to last

As it turns out, not all security programs are created equally. There are a confluence of factors to contemplate when designing a security strategy that works for today's schools and that will work for tomorrow's schools too. Security is no longer boots on the ground at the gate but instead, an active and participatory member of the community. Today's great security is marked by an awareness of cybersecurity, the ongoing ability to respond to online and offline threats, and their degree of interaction within their community. During this session, unpack traits of success and surface opportunities for leaders to build a winning security strategy that is not a liability, but instead one of the school’s most central assets.

CAIS 2024 Annual Heads and Chairs Conference

Sun, Oct 15, 2023, 2 PM and 3:30 PM  

Principles over tactics

Over the past few years, as we have endured a global pandemic that shook the core of our education systems, every head of school has become a crisis leader. How can the lessons we learned in Covid be applied to other, completely different types of crises? In this session, we’ll explore this along with other critical conversations related to crisis and emergency management in schools. We’ll offer a framework for understanding what all emergencies have in common and how that impacts a school leaders’ response. We’ll discuss which decisions should be made swiftly to prevent or mitigate disaster, and which allow time for deeper analysis. And we’ll focus on the leadership and communication principles that will fortify a school to handle any risk and keep them safe in any type of emergency. 

Workshop: Building a now-next-later plan for risk management

A workshop for heads of schools on backwards planning: what actions can we take today to make the most of the critical first seconds and minutes of an emergency? By sharing knowledge and working through real life case studies, we will build high yield strategies for schools to become stronger. We will focus our time on the categories that make up each of the puzzle pieces of a safer school, and formulate an action plan for what heads of school’s need to do over the following seven days, seven weeks, seven months, and seven years from an incident. 

ACIS 2024 Annual Leadership Conference

Fri, Oct 13, 2023, 10:30 AM and 1:45 PM  

Engaging your board chair in safety

Board chairs are deeply involved in our schools, and are invaluable partners for everything from fundraising to academics. But there’s one area most schools have not deeply engaged their board chair in: safety and security. In this session, we’ll discuss why this matters, what board members bring to the table, and how school leaders can more deeply engage their board leadership in their safety and security strategy. 

The Fundamental Principles of Crisis Leadership

Crises are known to have myriad issues blended together and launched at the crisis leaders at the speed of… crisis. How do you know which data presented to you are action-worthy vs which are artifacts? What decisions should you make swiftly? What decisions allow time for analysis-paralysis? How does one escape analysis paralysis once it’s recognized? How might we consolidate the perspectives of multiple leaders into a single, decisive, organizational perspective? In this session, participants will be able to understand key lessons from recent active shooter events with a focus on preparedness and response, define the core leadership principles of keeping students safe, and we will contemplate the spectrum of possibility over the next 5 years.

Podcast | Superintendent's Hangout

Fri, Sept 22, 2023

Chris joins Dr. David Sciarretta for his Podcast series Superintendent's Hangout, to talk about education, charter schools, and life in general.

Listen to the podcast now!

Managing the Yellow

Monday, August 28, 2023
9:00 AM 10:30 AM

What structures and systems do schools that are leading the way in safety and security with excellence have? What are we forecasting for this upcoming school year? And why are these things important?

COO Community Spotlight Series - Safety

Wednesday, July 26, 2023
1:00 PM 2:00 PM

Touching on the fundamentals of school safety, threat assessments (teams, protocol, training - and where they fit into this framework) and balancing competing priorities.

Webinar | Supporting Schools in Response to Nashville

Wednesday, April 19, 2023
12:00 PM 1:00 PM

For schools nationwide, join us to:

• Briefly discuss what is publicly known about the event as context
• Discuss the action items that schools need to take in the immediate:
  • We frequently see elevated numbers of threats in schools after these types of events occur. Building a threat management process will be critical and ensuring that people know who to report them to (see something, say something) and that people know what to do when they are reported (they said something, now we have to do something)
  • Talk about higher-than-usual security patrols
  • Talk about the ways in which parents can express and share questions, concerns, etc.
  • Think through how social media plays a role in threat detection and reporting
• Discuss the action items for schools in the medium term:
  • What are the summer priorities created with regard to assessing campus safety strategy, etc?
  • What's our "why" in how we manage security and threats on campus? How might we evolve that as events continue to shift our greater thinking?
  • Prioritize staff training and default/basic responses

Webinar | Supporting Schools in Response to Nashville

Wednesday, April 5, 2023
2:00 PM 3:00 PM

For Schools Nationwide

Briefly discuss what is publicly known about the event as context

• Discuss the action items that schools need to take in the immediate:
  • We frequently see elevated numbers of threats in schools after these types of events occur. Building a threat management process will be critical and ensuring that people know who to report them to (see something, say something) and that people know what to do when they are reported (they said something, now we have to do something)
  • Talk about higher-than-usual security patrols
  • Talk about the ways in which parents can express and share questions, concerns, etc.
  • Think through how social media plays a role in threat detection and reporting
• Discuss the action items for schools in the medium term:
  • What are the summer priorities created with regard to assessing campus safety strategy, etc?
  • What's our "why" in how we manage security and threats on campus? How might we evolve that as events continue to shift our greater thinking?
  • Prioritize staff training and default/basic responses

Webinar | Supporting Schools in Response to Nashville

Wednesday, March 29, 2023
2:00 PM 3:30 PM

For Schools Nationwide

Briefly discuss what is publicly known about the event as context

• Discuss the action items that schools need to take in the immediate:
  • We frequently see elevated numbers of threats in schools after these types of events occur. Building a threat management process will be critical and ensuring that people know who to report them to (see something, say something) and that people know what to do when they are reported (they said something, now we have to do something)
  • Talk about higher-than-usual security patrols
  • Talk about the ways in which parents can express and share questions, concerns, etc.
  • Think through how social media plays a role in threat detection and reporting
• Discuss the action items for schools in the medium term:
  • What are the summer priorities created with regard to assessing campus safety strategy, etc?
  • What's our "why" in how we manage security and threats on campus? How might we evolve that as events continue to shift our greater thinking?
  • Prioritize staff training and default/basic responses

2023 NAIS Annual Conference

Friday, February 24, 2023
11:00 AM 12:00 PM

Managing a Crisis When Everyone Has a Microphone: Safety and Communications in Age of Social Media

Issues that seem like small fires can quickly turn into conflagrations at schools. Social media can amplify and complicate crises, often leading to safety concerns. How can school leaders manage these situations most effectively and – most important -- keep everyone safe? In this session, we’ll look at the crisis issues most common in independent schools now. We’ll discuss techniques for decision-making and for communicating well. Through true (anonymized) case studies, participants will grapple with challenging questions related to safety and crisis communications.

Co-presented with Myra McGovern & Jim Hulbert

2023 ISACS Heads of Schools Conference

Friday, January 27, 2023
11:30 AM 12:45 PM

Building security to last

As it turns out, not all security programs are created equally. There are a confluence of factors to contemplate when designing a security strategy that works for today's schools and that will work for tomorrow's schools too. Security is no longer boots on the ground at the gate but instead, an active and participatory member of the community. Today's great security is marked by an awareness of cybersecurity, the ongoing ability to respond to online and offline threats, and their degree of interaction within their community. During this session, unpack traits of success and surface opportunities for leaders to build a winning security strategy that is not a liability, but instead one of the school’s most central assets.

2023 ISACS Heads of Schools Conference

Friday, January 27, 2023
8:30 AM 9:30 AM

Putting the puzzle pieces together to detect threats and make communities safer

Join us for an immersive session where we realize, quite literally, the puzzle pieces we hold can be meaningless alone but transformational when put together. These literal puzzle pieces represent the metaphorical pieces we hold every day. If successful at using the strategies learned during our session, participants will be able to see the whole picture.

Gallagher Independent School Business Officers Seminar

Thursday, January 26, 2023
11:00 AM 12:00 PM

Building Security to Last

As it turns out, not all security programs are created equally. There are a confluence of factors to contemplate when designing a security strategy that works for today's schools and that will work for tomorrow's schools too. Security is no longer boots on the ground at the gate but instead an active and participatory member of the community. Each student may perceive security differently, and we have learned security presence (uniforms, equipment, training, and relationships) must be customized to fit the community. Today's great security is marked by an awareness of cybersecurity, the ongoing ability to respond to online and offline threats, and their degree of interaction within their community. During this session, unpack traits of success and surface opportunities to build a winning security strategy that is not a liability, but instead one of the school’s most central assets.

2023 Cal-ISBOA Safety & Security Forum

Thursday, January 19, 2023
10:30 AM 11:30 AM

Best Practices for Emergency Management

During this interactive session, CEO & Founder Chris Joffe of Joffe Emergency Services, we will help school leaders rebuild their confidence in emergency management, crisis leadership, and impactful drills.

'Run. Hide. Fight' v. Lockdown Webinar

Wednesday, January 18, 2023
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Two experts in mass violence – Dr. Jaclyn Schildkraut and Katherine Schweit – will share the stage to debate the pros and cons of two differing approaches to active shooter response: “Run, Hide, Fight” vs. Lockdown.

Their conversation is available today to all Joffe Academy PLUS members. All Joffe clients have access to Joffe Academy PLUS at no cost. If you are interested in viewing the debate and don't currently have a Academy PLUS membership,Joffe please contact us at support@joffeemergencyservices.com for short trial term access.

11th West Coast ISNA Education Forum

Saturday, January 14, 2023
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Crisis Preparedness and Management in Islamic Schools

Islamic schools operate in a unique environment. As private non-profit institutions, they are not bound to the same legal and institutional requirements as public schools. Under these circumstances, they do not always have knowledge of and access to crisis prevention and response strategies that may otherwise be found in public schools. Yet, Islamic schools are equally susceptible to crisis situations, including school shootings, suicide attempts, and medical emergencies.

2022 NAIS People of Color Conference

Thursday, December 1, 2022
1:45 PM - 3:00 PM

The Equity Issue We Don’t Talk Enough About - How School Safety Impacts Educational Equity

There is an inextricable connection between educational equity and school safety. Students can only learn when they feel safe, and far too many students of color face regular safety concerns at school. In this session, we’ll delve into some of the safety issues that disproportionately impact students of color and discuss how safety and security affects students’ ability to learn. Using a school-based case study, we’ll explore the importance of educating and empowering everyone across campus to respond to emergencies and share specific, concrete strategies to build confidence among members of the school community when it comes to safety and security.

2022 FCIS Convention: Being Well While Doing Good

Thursday, November 3, 2022
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront (map)

The Fundamental Principles of Crisis Leadership

Over the past two years, every head of school has become a crisis leader. But how can the lessons we learned in Covid be applied to other, completely different types of crises? How do we know which data presented are action-worthy and which are simply artifacts? What decisions should you make swiftly? What decisions allow time for analysis-paralysis? How does one escape analysis-paralysis once it’s recognized? How might we consolidate the perspectives of multiple leaders into a single, decisive, organizational perspective? This is a nail-biting, pencil jotting session designed to entertain, inform, and ignite progress.

2022 AISNE Governance Conference

Tuesday, October 4, 2022
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Crises are known to have myriad issues blended together and launched at the crisis leaders at the speed of… Crisis. How do you know which data presented to you are action-worthy vs which are artifacts? What decisions should you make swiftly? What decisions allow time for analysis-paralysis? How does one escape analysis-paralysis once it’s recognized? How might we consolidate the perspectives of multiple leaders into a single, decisive, organizational perspective? This is a nail-biting, pencil jotting session designed to entertain, inform, and cause progress.

Council of American Private Education

Monday, September 12, 2022
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

In this session we touch on all things school safety, from recent heightened concerns around active shooters, we dive into a case study on Uvalde lessons; we look ahead towards the future at five things we expect to occur in the next five to ten years and what to do about them; and we present the core principles for keeping students safe.

AISGW Presentation

Tuesday, June 21, 2022
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Leading Lockdown Drills in the Current COVID Climate

Many schools have paused or delayed lockdown drills over the past three years in order to maintain Covid protocols. As lockdown preparation has come into focus again, many schools are feeling rusty and lacking confidence in their response. Through a combination of case studies/breakout groups/reacting to real world scenarios, this session will help school leaders rebuild their confidence and prepare to run effective, successful, and impactful lockdown drills with their community.

PAISBOA May Webinar

Tuesday, May 31, 2022
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Virtual Speaking Engagement (map)

As we near the end of the 2021-22 school year we are all wondering the same thing... What should we expect in the coming weeks? Join Chris Joffe, Founder & CEO of Joffe Emergency Services, in a 60 minute interactive discussion on what we can expect and what should be top of mind for us this summer.

2022 NWAIS Business Officers Conference

Tuesday, April 26, 2022
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Aderbrook Resort (map)

The Fundamental Principles of Crisis Leadership

With Chris Joffe, Founder and Principle, Joffe Emergency Services

Over the past two years, every head of school has become a crisis leader. But how can the lessons we learned in Covid be applied to other, completely different types of crises? How do we know which data presented are action-worthy and which are simply artifacts? What decisions should you make swiftly? What decisions allow time for analysis-paralysis? How does one escape analysis-paralysis once it’s recognized? How might we consolidate the perspectives of multiple leaders into a single, decisive, organizational perspective? This is a nail-biting, pencil jotting session designed to entertain, inform, and ignite progress.

An EARCOS Sponsored Event: BACK TO SCHOOL AFTER COVID-19: NAVIGATING SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING

Friday, February 25, 2022
5:00 PM 6:30 PM

As we transition back to school—online, in-person, or hybrid— leaders in education must find strategies to inspire hope and leverage positive change to confront the adversities we have faced. Many families and their children continue to experience high levels of anxiety, depression, trauma, and fear. During this session, the presenters will provide a Social Emotional Learning framework for cultivating skills and environments that advance students’ learning and development. The presentation will also examine approaches that include a trauma-informed, equitable, and compassionate lens to providing mental health support to every member of the school community. Because we all are returning to school as different people than when we left, caring leaders seek to support each other in turning our tragedies into growth, recognizing the joys amongst the ongoing and profound difficulties, and re-establishing school communities to serve everyone, with greater justice and equity.

Key Objectives:

1. Define Social and Emotional Learning, it is not an add on!
2. Introduce the SEL framework from CASEL
3. Introduce strategies for implementation and curricular resources to support educators and school staff.

FORMAT: Zoom Meeting (Zoom link will be sent 2 days before the event.)

FEE: Free for EARCOS Members; $100 for Non-Members. Please contact info@earcos.org to be placed on the Guest Waitlist.

NYSAIS: The Four Pillars of Safe Schools

Tuesday, February 15, 2022
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

An EARCOS Special Event: Now What? Mastering the Art of Continuous Pivot

Thu, Nov 5, 2020, 6:00 PM - Fri, Nov 6, 2020, 7:00 PM

Chris Joffe, Founder/CEO of Joffe Emergency Services will lead participants through a dialogue focused on the long-tail consequences of COVID-19 on Safety & Security and Health & Wellness programs in our schools. Specifically, you can expect to learn about strategies you can implement to manage faculty & student safety commitments/expectations, facilities impacts, classroom design impacts and even some of the challenges associated with designing security deployment modeling in and around a post-COVID-19 era.

AIMS Security Conference: Building Community Confidence In Response To Covid-19

Thursday, October 29, 2020
8:20 AM - 9:00 AM

Responding to Covid-19 has proven to be an incredibly challenging undertaking. Managing tactics, principles, communication and community confidence is not for the faint of heart, but our schools, by and large, have done incredibly well in at least one of these areas, if not multiple. Join us for a discussion where Chris Joffe, Founder & CEO of Joffe Emergency Services will unpack a few key areas of success that Joffe's detected across the most successful schools they're working with right now. Participants will walk away with a clear understanding for:

• How to lead and communicate from a place of principles, not tactics.
• How to respond to emerging data, studies, changes in protocol
• What and when to sprint and when to settle into your marathon pace
• 3+ immediate action items to take as schools consider the future months
• 2 primary takeaways to help leaders evaluate how they and their schools are managing

ADVIS - Bridging the Gap: Building Confidence with Parents in COVID-19

Thursday, October 1, 2020
8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Meet the team responsible for developing Confidence Building Parent Education at The School in Rose Valley! Join us in discussion with Head of School, Rod Stanton, Health Coordinator (powered by Joffe) Colleen Scheetz, and Founder & CEO of Joffe Emergency Services, Chris Joffe for an enlightening dialog around the strategies used to develop and scale parent confidence at The School in Rose Valley. Participants will walk away with action plans to develop strong parent communication and confidence building tools of their own plus access to Joffe's information hub for schools loaded with: COVID-19 resources, communication templates regarding positive COVID-19 cases on campus, and more!

SAIS - Summer Conference (Virtual)

Wednesday, July 1, 2020
9:00 AM - 11:30 AM

"The New Normal: Coming Back After The Curve" In this session, Chris will focus on the best practices for returning to school after Covid-19. He will outline the top 3 - 5 areas of focus, discuss strategies for keeping schools safe and provide a list of action items for each school to take as we continue to grapple with the challenges of returning to school in the Fall.

"Deep Dive into Reopening Your School" In this session, we will use Joffe's School Reopening templates as a starting point for your own documents. This interactive session will be led by experts with the goal to publish your own emergency plan around Covid-19, or at the very least have a clear action plan for developing one. During this session you will be able to ask Chris for any documentation and/or templates that have been produced by Joffe.

NWAIS- Reopening Webinar

Friday, May 15, 2020
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

"The New Normal: Coming Back After The Curve" In this session, Chris will outline the top 3 - 5 areas of focus, discuss strategies for keeping schools safe and provide a list of action items for each school to take as we continue to grapple with the challenges of returning to school in the Fall.

Cal-ISBOA 2020 Virtual Annual Conference

Monday, May 4, 2020
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Panel Discussion - Planning for the New Normal: The Expanding Impact of Wildfires.

PAISBOA Business and Plant Managers Webinar

Monday, April 27, 2020
7:00 AM - 8:00 AM

CAIS Facilities Directors Webinar

Tuesday, April 21, 2020
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Association Montessori International (AMI) Coronavirus Webinar

Monday, April 6, 2020
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM