VANCOUVER, WA — The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) was recently awarded a Pre-disaster Mitigation Planning Grant by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This grant will provide funds to states, territories, communities and universities for hazard mitigation planning and implementation of mitigation projects.
By directing funds to these mitigation plans and projects, communities are able to put measures in place to reduce their overall risk from natural disasters. Additionally, in the event of a disaster, it reduces reliance on funding from an actual disaster declaration.
OSPI’s state-wide plan will give school districts the opportunity to strategically identify risks to school facilities from a variety of natural hazards.
The Ocosta School District is one of thirty Washington districts chosen to partner with OSPI for this effort. The main focuses of the plan will be to identify Action Items and mitigation projects for specific school facilities within the District that may be at highest risk.
At the completion of the plan development, all projects identified by the thirty partner districts will be prioritized, and ten will be chosen for further cost analysis, required for FEMA mitigation project grant applications. All school district plans and the accompanying cost/benefit analyses will be included as part of the OSPI K-12 Facilities Hazard Mitigation Plan.
As the District begins development of our plan, we will actively be engaging teachers, administrators, school personnel, parents and other community members through an online survey on the District’s web site and several public meetings.
For additional information about the District’s hazard mitigation planning process and to provide your input please visit the Ocosta School District website (www.ocosta.k12.wa.us).
For more information about the state-wide K-12 Facilities Hazard Mitigation Planning process, please visit the OSPI website at http://www.k12.wa.us/SchFacilities/PDM