School maps show promise as safety tool. Here’s how they work.

This story was originally published by Project Optimist Minnesota school officers will soon have digital facility maps at their fingertips part of a growing movement nationwide to increase prevention Minnesota lawmakers earmarked million for school maps in administered by the state s seven regional crisis communication boards The law stipulates the initial million is a one-time financing and the money is available until June St Cloud-based GeoComm made a push in latest years to map K- schools announced Jason Kim the company s senior director of improvement marketing and GeoComm submitted a bid for the regional contracts But selected experts say annual maintenance costs and ongoing updates could cause school districts to abandon the tools A graphic shows how crisis personnel can pinpoint where a call comes from Credit Courtesy of GeoComm How it works School district representatives can upload their own maps to GeoComm s project or have GeoComm staff map school buildings and grounds Kim noted The application allows bureaucrats to be as detailed as realizable they can record where every fire extinguisher automatic external defibrillator doorway and restroom are for example Once the maps are set school functionaries can share them with local law enforcement This allows first responders to pinpoint the exact source of an emergency call in the building Kim cited a diagnostic situation at Jackson County Central High School in Jackson Minn Exigency responders used GeoComm s indoor map of the school to determine where the call came from and parked the ambulance at the nearest door he reported It was really I think for a lot of folks very enlightening in terms of the impact of how these maps work because so a large number of folks are still used to using the PDFs and the CAD drawings of schools he disclosed Jason Kim is GeoComm s senior director of rise marketing Credit Courtesy of GeoComm School personnel can update the maps in real time Kim commented chosen use the program for crisis preparedness during sporting events and graduations for example On the safety side school authorities set up tiers of access announced Bill McCullough vice president of sales and marketing Not everyone has the same access A mentor wouldn t necessarily have the same access as a shield professional or a facilities professional or the superintendent of the school district McCullough noted The system exists on the Amazon Web Services GovCloud which McCullough explained is one of the largest part reliable secure networks available In practice Kyle Jones is the deputy superintendent of Florence Schools in Florence South Carolina The school district has students Jones explained and started using GeoComm to map its buildings in Bill McCullough is GeoComm s vice president of sales and marketing Credit Courtesy of GeoComm Administrators mapped district buildings in phases at their three high schools and alternative school in - at their four middle schools in - and the district s elementary schools will be next GeoComm s maps fit like Legos would fit together with Florence Schools safeguard protocols such as cameras Jones noted One thing Jones declared is pivotal to note is the time it takes when GeoComm staff come to map facilities If GeoComm says it will take three days they mean it will take three full days to detail every nook and cranny A D map of a school includes doors fire extinguishers and other details for first responders Credit Courtesy of GeoComm You want to allocate staff that are able to stay with them start to finish Jones stated He appreciates how responsive GeoComm s platform is the fact that it draws input from one source how secure it is and how it uses the same language and symbols first responders use So far public members have not been critical of the tool and Jones explained he couldn t think of anything that requirements to be improved When you re talking about candidate safety that s certainly a hard one to criticize Jones mentioned I d rather be as proactive as humanly feasible Florence Schools just now renewed its contract with GeoComm Jones reported Project Optimist one year of amenity costs the district Statewide map contract awarded GeoComm received a million contract to map schools across the state of Iowa and submitted a proposal to do the same in Minnesota McCullough recounted Project Optimist that the southwest region urgency communications board awarded its school mapping contract to GeoComm The six other regional boards consolidated under one RFP McCullough stated and awarded the contract to Critical Response Group School administrators who opt-in to have their buildings mapped will have to foot the bill for the mechanism after it s implemented In the past ongoing maintenance costs caused school districts to drop similar mapping programs reported Ken Trump president of National School Safety and Assurance Services no relation to President Donald Trump Trump who has spent more than four decades in the school safeguard industry revealed he remembers similar mapping programs that appeared after the Columbine High School shooting Ken Trump is president of National School Safety and Prevention Services Credit Courtesy of Ken Trump The devil rests in the details of fidelity of implementation and also the sustainability over time Trump commented in an email to Project Optimist If schools get one-time grant money for these projects which specific vendors have reportedly been lobbying for it is great in the eyes of school leaders until they have to decide how to sustain the ongoing costs of subscriptions to application and other costs and sustain the activity for the long haul Trump s main questions about school maps include who can access them and how briskly can they be accessed by first responders and or dispatchers Generally speaking there is not a challenge with the concept or intent of mapping schools for exigency response purposes It can potentially emphasis on potentially be a source if a school shooting or other critical circumstance occurs he reported This story was edited and fact-checked by Nora Hertel It is part of a series on firearms in collaboration with Minnesota Women s Press The post School maps show promise as safety tool Here s how they work appeared first on MinnPost