The field of school safety consulting can be a dog-eat-dog affair as consultants vie for ever-diminishing dollars. In many regards, this is good, as competition in the free market creates better products and services for the clients. However, choosing the right consultant from the number available can be quite the chore.
The first step is to understand why you need a consultant. A threat assessment is vastly different from a physical assessment, which is vastly different from doing a climate assessment. Be specific. Establish goals for your intended project, and plan out how the thing you want to do will be done. Through this process, you will identify what it is you will need. Typically in school safety, consultants provide assessments, training, a system, or a combination of all three.
You will need to know how much money you will have available for the project. This amount is the ceiling on your project. The bidding process, if done properly, should provide you with a consultant who will bid under that ceiling, leaving you a cushion to cover any unexpected expenses.
You will also need to know the time frame of your project. Will it take days, weeks, months, and how will that time frame fit into your district's budget time frame? Make sure to provide enough time to evaluate your project at the end.
Developing a Project
1. Identify what you need to have done.
a. Assessment?
b. Training?
c. A new system?
d. A combination of all the above?
2. How much money is available for the project?
3. What is the time frame of your project?
Write this up in narrative form, and get it approved by your school district's Business Officer.
In the next installment, the Request for Proposal process will be detailed.
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