As you are aware, WASPC notified you on June 10, 2016 that due to a funding shortage, Washington’s Critical Incident Planning and Mapping System (aka “school mapping”) would be suspended effective June 30, 2016. The Governor’s Office has made emergency funding available to enable us to continue the program through state fiscal year 2017, which begins July 1, 2016 and ends June 30, 2017. Because of this funding, the school mapping program will continue in its current form through that time period.
Although this funding provides a bridge to continue the program, there is no guarantee that program funding will be available after June 30, 2017. WASPC will again request that the legislature provide stable and ongoing funding for school safety programs.
We obviously heard from some stakeholders who were concerned regarding the proposed shutdown of the school mapping program. These stakeholders urged us to find a way to continue the program. We would ask those concerned about the continued viability of the program to become active during the legislative process and make your concerns known to legislators and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
We will be making internal adjustments to the program during the next few days. These will be aimed at strengthening the current program, reaching out to a variety of stakeholders, and trying to increase the actual usage of the program by end users both in the schools and within the police, fire, and emergency medical venues. We believe that the Governor’s provision of emergency funding should result in our full efforts to fully utilize the system and make every effort to have it in use for robust planning, training, tabletop exercises, and, if needed, real world responses. WASPC is committed to making this happen.
In the next few days, WASPC will outline our personnel changes and the planned activities we think will improve the service we provide and encourage usage of the system. When we convey the changes to you, we would appreciate your feedback. What can we do to help you utilize the system more thoroughly; increase the profile of the system to your personnel; provide training to your needs; make system or application changes that allow you easier access to the desired end result of increasing school safety?
I look forward to working with all of you as we move forward with this program. Our goal is to provide improved school safety support and to better integrate all aspects of school safety with the interface between school staff, students, emergency responders, and the general public.