The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission has held another meeting in their effort to come up with recommendations to improve public safety following the shootings on December 14th 2012.  They heard testimony from Superintendent Dr Joseph Erardi.  He asked Sandy Hook School staff, who were present on 12-14 and worked all of last year to give him their opinions and insight on the events that followed.

Staff told Erardi about the importance of having an effective communication protocol in place during and after the event.  Erardi also said that it's not just a case of making money available to harden the school buildings, but also the time needed to make sure emergency protocols are understood by all.

Staff would like to see a strong partnership with local police who know every room, every number, every door all of the time.

Another recommendation is the importance of knowing who is the buildings at all times.  There are subcontracted staff not listed on rosters, such as food service staff.  When Central Office and Town Emergency Planners, immediately after 12-14, no one had Chartwell Food Service on their lists.

Newtown's first selectman is recommending the state conduct a full after-action study to find out what worked and what didn't in her town's response to the December 2012 school shooting.  Pat Llodra said local officials were overwhelmed with the logistics of handling donations, volunteers, correspondence, and media requests.

She says the town, for example, had no way to vet the qualifications of the mental health experts who came to help.

Llodra says the local government would have collapsed without help from companies such as General Electric, which provided four full-time executives to work with the town.

Llodra also revealed that school officials would not give her contact information for the victims' families until two weeks after the shooting.

Llodra told the Commission that at one point, the town logged 65,000 stuffed teddy bears. That didn't include other types of stuffed animals, hundreds of backpacks, bicycles, skateboards, school supplies, candles, gift wrap, crayons, sneakers, and more.  Thousands of books were also donated to Newtown.

Llodra said the volume of mail sent to Newtown prompted U.S. Postal Service employees to set up shop in the town hall’s basement.  Volunteers helped sort more than 200,000 pieces of mail.