Orting School District, Safety Planning

March 14, 2016

Dear Staff and Community,

The Orting School District is entrusted with the safety and well-being of students. We know this is our primary
responsibility and is necessary if we are to achieve our mission of preparing all students for college, careers,
and life.

This fall we asked our community for input using ThoughtExchange. Our top two celebrations were a) the
quality of staff and b) improved communications. Our top two areas of concern were a)
overcrowding/growth/class size and b) safety. We are continuing to build on our strengths, and we are acting
on this feedback by directly addressing areas of concern. We have established a Citizen’s Facility Planning
Committee to create a plan to address our lack of instructional space. Now, in collaboration with our
community partners, our district is assembling a District Safety Planning Team to plan for potential
emergencies through the creation of a High Quality Emergency Operating Plan.

The first step in creating this plan is to form a collaborative District Safety Planning Team. In consultation with
school safety experts, we are seeking to build a team that includes:
- Consultant, Barbara Everette Thurman, J.D.
- Department of Emergency Management (1)
- Educational Services District Operations Director,
Andrea Dombroski
- Educational Services District Director of Dropout,
Reengagement and Safety Services, Jill Patnode
- Orting Valley Fire and Rescue Chief, Zane Gibson
- Orting Police Department (1)
- Orting Police Officer/School Resource Officer, Officer
Boone
- OSD Superintendent, Marci Shepard
- OSD Executive Director for Finance and Operations,
Marci Bannan
- OSD School Board Director, Kay Lynn Smartt
- OSD Safety and Security Liaison, Randy Gallatin
- OSD High School Principal, Diane Fox
- OSD Elementary School Assistant Principal, Danielle
Craigen
- School Safety Representative (1 per school)
- Orting Community Experts (1-3) If you have expertise
in areas of Safety and Emergencies such as active
shooter trainer, emergency management, or physical
safety and would like to join the team, please
email your interest to Jill Garcia
(garciaj@orting.wednet.edu) by March 18th. We will
interview interested participants the week of March
21st and select up to three team members.
- Parent and student input and feedback

This team will meet six times in the district office board room:
- March 29 4:00-6:00
- April 19 4:00-6:00
- April 26 4:00-6:00
- May 10 4:00-6:00
- May 24 5:00-7:00 (5:00-6:00 we will invite families
and community to give input. 6:00-7:00 the team will
review family/community input, student input, and
information from school walkthroughs and school
safety plan reviews.)
- June 7 4:00-6:00

The work of this District Safety Planning Team will include:
- Identifying and understanding the hazards we are
planning for
- Completing a risk assessment
- Establishing goals and objectives
- Developing a course of action
- Reviewing and recommending the plan
- Planning implementation and maintenance of the plan

This is urgent work that is too important for the district to do in isolation. We look forward to collaborating to create a collective, coordinated plan that we will use to keep students and staff safe in case of an emergency. I’d be happy to answer any questions or discuss this further. My office phone number is 360-893-6500.

Thank you for your ongoing partnership!

Sincerely,

Marci

Dr. Marci Shepard
Superintendent
Orting School District