Shelton's Chapter Four: Goals, Objectives, and Action Items

4.1 Overview

 

The purpose of the Shelton School District Hazard Mitigation Plan is to reduce the impacts of future
natural disasters on the district’s facilities, students, staff, and volunteers. That is, the purpose is to
make the Shelton School District more disaster resistant and disaster resilient, by reducing the
vulnerability to disasters and enhancing the capability to respond effectively to, and recover quickly
from, future disasters. 
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Completely eliminating the risk of future disasters in the Shelton School District is neither
technologically possible nor economically feasible. However, substantially reducing the negative
impacts of future disasters is achievable with the adoption of this pragmatic Hazard Mitigation Plan
and ongoing implementation of risk reducing action items. Incorporating risk reduction strategies and
action items into the District's existing programs and decision making processes will facilitate moving
the Shelton School District toward a safer and more disaster resistant future. 

The Shelton School District Hazard Mitigation Plan is based on a four-step framework that is designed
 to help focus attention and action on successful mitigation strategies: Mission Statement, Goals,
Objectives, and Action Items.

Mission Statement. The Mission Statement states the purpose and defines the primary function
of the Shelton School District Hazard Mitigation Plan. The Mission Statement is an
action-oriented summary that answers the question, "Why develop a hazard mitigation plan?"

Goals. Goals identify priorities and specify how the Shelton School District intends to work
toward reducing the risks from natural and human-caused hazards. The Goals represent the
guiding principles toward which the district's efforts are directed. Goals provide focus for the
more specific issues, recommendations, and actions addressed in Objectives and Action Items.

Objectives. Each goal has Objectives which specify the directions, methods, processes, or steps necessary to accomplish the Shelton School District Hazard Mitigation Plan's Goals. Objectives
 lead directly to specific Action Items.

Action Items. Action Items are specific, well-defined activities or projects that work to reduce
risk. That is, the Action Items represent the specific, implementable steps necessary to
achieve the District’s Mission Statement, Goals, and Objectives.  

 

 

4.2 Mission Statement

The mission statement for the Shelton School District Hazard Mitigation Plan is to:

Proactively facilitate and support district-wide policies, practices, and programs that
make the Shelton School District more disaster resistant and disaster resilient

Making the Shelton School District more disaster resistant and disaster resilient means taking proactive steps and actions to:

4.3 Mitigation Plan Goals and Objectives

The following Goals and Objectives serve as guideposts and checklists to begin the process of
implementing mitigation Action Items to reduce identified risks to the District’s facilities, students, staff,
and volunteers from natural disasters.

The Goals and Objectives are consistent with those in the Washington State K–12 Facilities Hazard
Mitigation Plan. However, the specific priorities, emphasis, and language in this mitigation plan are the
Shelton School District’s. These goals were developed with extensive input and priority setting by the
Shelton District’s hazard mitigation planning team, with inputs from district staff, volunteers, parents,
students, and other stakeholders in the communities served by the district.

Goal 1: Reduce Threats to Life Safety

 

Reducing threats to life safety is the highest priority for the Shelton School District.

            Objectives:

A. Enhance life safety by retrofitting existing buildings or replacing them with new
current-code buildings and by locating and designing new schools to minimize life safety
risk from future disaster events.

B. Develop robust disaster evacuation plans and conduct frequent practice drills. When
evacuation is impossible in the anticipated warning time, consider vertical evacuation for
tsunamis, other physical measures to shorten evacuation time, such as pedestrian bridges
over rivers, or relocate campuses with extreme life safety risk to locations outside of hazard
 zones when possible.

C. Enhance life safety by improving public awareness of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic
events, and other natural hazards that pose substantial life safety risk to the district’s
facilities, students, staff, and volunteers. 

Goal 2: Reduce Damage to District Facilities, Economic Losses, and Disruption of the
District’s Services

            Objectives: 

A. Retrofit or replace existing buildings with a high vulnerability to one or more natural
hazards to reduce damage, economic loss, and disruption in future disaster events.

B. Ensure that new facilities are adequately designed for hazard events and located
outside of mapped high hazard zones to minimize damage and loss of function in future
disaster events, to the extent practicable.

Goal 3: Enhance Emergency Planning, Disaster Response, and Post-Disaster Recovery

            Objectives:

A. Enhance collaboration and coordination between the district, local governments,
utilities, businesses, and citizens to prepare for, and recover from, future natural disaster
events.

B. Enhance emergency planning to facilitate effective response and rapid recovery from
future natural disaster events.

 

Goal 4: Increase Awareness and Understanding of Natural Hazards and Mitigation

            Objectives: 

A. Implement education and outreach efforts to increase awareness of natural hazards
throughout the Shelton School District, including staff, parents, teachers, and the entire
communities served by the district.

B. Maintain and publicize a natural hazards section in the high school library with FEMA
and other publications and distribute FEMA and other brochures and other educational
materials regarding natural hazards.

4.4 Shelton School District Hazard Mitigation Plan Action Items

Mitigation Action Items may include a wide range of measures such as: refinement of policies,
studies, and data collection to better characterize hazards or risk, education, or outreach activities,
enhanced emergency planning, partnership building activities, as well as retrofits to existing facilities
or replacement of vulnerable facilities with new current-code buildings. The 2017 Shelton School
District’s Hazard Mitigation Plan Action Items are summarized on the following pages: