NYC DOE opens ’emergency operations center’ for crises

The Department of Education is opening an around-the-clock emergency operations center to initiate a “coordinated, rapid response” to city schools during a crisis, The Post has learned.

The EOC is set to open March 15. Superintendents or their designees are supposed to call or email the center in situations that “disrupt schoolwide operations,” according to an internal DOE memo.

“Within 15 minutes of the intake call or email, the EOC will initiate an email chain.”

Several school principals told The Post they received no further explanation or instructions.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” one said. “Do they know something that they’re not sharing?”

The move comes in the wake of several shootings outside schools this month and an uptick in violence that has left three students dead since September.

An alleged gangbanger was charged last week in a shooting that wounded two students and a school safety agent outside a Williamsburg school Feb. 8. Two days earlier, two teens were shot about a block from their school campus in Williamsburg.

The surge in gunfire prompted the NYPD to boost security during dismissal time at problematic schools.

The new process replaces “various escalation paths” superintendents have used to report emergencies, the memo says.

The memo announcing the EOC comes after Mayor Adams told principals to join weekly Zoom meetings with local police commanders to share information on possible safety threats.

“They want to hear about anything in the neighborhood that may become an issue,” a high school principal told The Post. “I guess they want more information from us, because we do see a lot and know a lot.”

The DOE did not respond to a request for comment.