The 5th Annual School Safety Summit was held on June 12 of this year. Annual Summits are designed to be participatory. Over the years, we have had targeted presentations on specific funding issues, safety topics, and studies mandated by the legislature. Some excellent recommendations have come out of the Summits, and some notable legislation has been proposed – and passed.
This year, the plan for the Summit included walking participants through an abbreviated Table Top Exercise (TTX) centered on a specific threat or hazard incident. The intent was to “experience” the incident, injects and all, and discuss it. With this year’s limited Summit time, virtual meeting space, and our ongoing COVID experience, we opted to use our collective and individual COVID pandemic experiences as the TTX incident. We did, however, consider the 5 PPD–8 mission areas applied specifically to before, during and after pandemic activities.
As you prepare for the coming new school year, you are invited to do the same with your staffs:
- Think back to the time just before and just after the winter break last December/January.
- Revisit your existing comprehensive school safety (EOP) plan.
- Walk through the discussion starter questions listed below with your school teams:
Before the Pandemic: (Prevention-Mitigation-Protection)
- Did you have a comprehensive school safety plan?
- Did you included a possible pandemic in your plan?
- What policies and procedures did you have in place?
- What resources did you have available – physical, medical, human capitol, educational?
- Did you have a continuity of operations plan (COOP) in place?
- Were all students and student needs considered?
During the Pandemic: (Mitigation-Protection-Response)
- How are you?
- What essential functions have been disrupted over this COVID period?
- How are you accommodating the disruption of essential functions?
- What resources are you currently drawing on?
- What has worked well/What are the current greatest needs of staff, students, administration – and families?
- Are all students and student needs being addressed? Adequately?
- Are you documenting “things” – experiences, new learnings, major challenges, etc?
- What can you take forward into the future?
Moving Forward: (Response-Recovery)
- What needs do you anticipate for / from your staff, students, and families?
- What worked well during the pandemic?
- What do you need to consider as you move forward?
- Who will you partner with? (1st Responders? Community organizations? Others)
- How will you accomplish this?
- What will you carry forward from this current experience?
- What will you most likely need by way of training(s)?
- Do you have the resources to meet your (newly realized) needs?
- What else will you need? From the state, from your ESD, from your community partners? From your families?
Ultimately,
- What will you do to revise your old comprehensive safety plan?
- How will you plan for the Next Big Thing?
Thank you for all that you are doing to keep our students and staffs safe. Remember: Stay healthy and strong yourself.
REGISTER EARLY for the 2020 GREAT WA SHAKEOUT @ 10:15