$10,000 Grant Awarded For CERT Training

The McDonald County R-1 School District has received a $10,000 grant that will be used for Community Emergency Response Team training.

CERT is a FEMA program. It trains volunteers to respond during emergencies when professional responders are not immediately available. Adam Lett, school safety director and principal at White Rock Elementary School, proposed applying for the grant at the November board of education meeting.

“I always go to the state emergency training, and they have different breakout sessions,” he said. “They announced there was a grant the state was opening up.”

Only 49 school districts out of 200 received the grant, he noted.

Lett said the district has been doing a lot of safety and emergency planning and training, and he began wondering who would respond in the event of an emergency.

“The CERT program is a natural avenue for us,” he said. “Not only can we respond to our own emergency, but we can lend community support. If there was a tornado or an explosion and it doesn’t affect the school, we can still support. It’s a community partnership.”

Lett said the training will be in January or February and will be taught by Gregg Sweeten, emergency management director for the county. Sweeten said the training will cover fire suppression, search and rescue, first aid, disaster psychology, roles and responsibilities of CERT members, and terrorism and CERT.

Lett said, “I’m excited. My own kids go to McDonald County Schools. I feel good about everything we’ve done to make sure our kids and staff members are safe. This makes me feel even more secure that, if something does happen, staff members are prepared. This could save the life of a child or staff member.”

About 40 employees will be trained during a two-day training. At the end of training they will be given backpacks filled with supplies such as flashlights, hard hats and triage materials, Lett said.

Sweeten has been a CERT instructor since 2009. He said it is one of the best programs because the training is standardized throughout the U.S., resulting in trained individuals being certified everywhere in the nation.

“I’m thrilled that the school is coming on board,” he said. “I have about 80 folks in McDonald County that have trained through CERT, and that will give us 35 to 40 more folks that will be trained.

Once the training is complete, each school in the district will have a group that can respond in a school incident as well as during emergencies that happen while they are elsewhere in the community.

“You take care of yourself, you take care of your neighbors and you take care of your community,” Sweeten said.