SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California Community Colleges System Office has announced that it will be offering a first round of system-wide emergency planning and preparedness training for all California community college districts and colleges made possible by a Federal grant from the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security.
Both state and federal laws mandate that educational institutions plan and prepare for all types of disasters, ensuring the safety of students, faculty and staff. This includes conducting proper training under the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) as well as having a compliant emergency operations plan. Failure to comply with these regulations can result not only in loss of state and federal funding but also in professional and personal liability.
The first round of training will be one-day workshops in August and September held at five college locations throughout the state. Training will be conducted for two categories of district and college personnel: 1) Chief Executive Officers and 2) emergency and safety personnel.
According to Chancellor Mark Drummond, the executive emergency training will provide district and college CEOs with important training from the University of West Virginia’s VMC/Homeland Security Program and a SEMS executive course that fulfills one of the requirements for CEO training under NIMS and SEMS. The emergency and safety personnel training will focus on college risk assessment planning, which is a necessary precursor to emergency operations planning and preparedness required under NIMS and SEMS.
Immediately following each workshop, there will be a reception and vendor exhibits providing an opportunity to meet other community college personnel. Attendees will also be able to learn more about various emergency planning and preparedness products and services available to districts and colleges. Both the workshop and reception are free to participants including all materials, meals and refreshments.
The training sessions will be held at the following locations:
- Rio Hondo College | August 7, 2007
- Grossmont College | August 9, 2007
- Cosumnes River College | August 14, 2007
- Coastline College | September 25, 2007
- College of Marin | September 27, 2007
According to Drummond, all district and college CEOs and emergency and safety personnel should attend one of these free training workshops in order to meet state and federal mandates requiring all college personnel to be trained as disaster service workers, be eligible for state grants and FEMA reimbursement and better prepare themselves, their colleges and their communities.
Attendees should confirm by August 1 by contacting Berta Jimenez at [email protected] or (916) 445-4434. For additional information, contact Dr. Tod Burnett, Vice Chancellor, or (916) 445-4434 or Dr. Craig Zachlod, Emergency Management Coordinator, at [email protected] or (916) 325-1856.
