AB720 Example support letter

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      EL CAMINO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

     16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, CA 90506

     (310) 660-3111

July XX, 2019

Senator Anthony Portantino
Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee
State Capitol, Rm. 3086
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: AB 720 (Muratsuchi)—SUPPORT FOR REMOVAL FROM SUSPENSE

Dear Senator Portantino:

On behalf of El Camino Community College District, I write to request that AB 720 be moved from suspense and to the Senate floor for a vote. AB 720 requires that courses offered by California’s community colleges to public safety agencies via instructional service agreements (ISAs) be funded outside the new student-centered funding formula. One of the most concerning consequences of the funding formula is its impact on our partnerships with agencies including fire, sheriff, and police departments.

These public safety personnel have ongoing training mandated by their respective state agencies. Colleges collaborate with local agencies to offer this training under the California Community College apportionment-funding model. These partnerships exist at a considerable number of colleges across the system. According to data for the 2016-17 academic year, there are 32 districts—almost 30 percent of California’s community colleges—that offer public safety classes through ISAs. These courses serve nearly 15,000 FTES statewide. In the past, 100 percent of the funds received from the state for these training programs came from FTES apportionment.

Under the new funding formula, however, colleges will receive a significantly reduced percentage based on apportionment over the next several years. The remaining funding is based on 1) serving students of need, and 2) student outcomes such as graduation rates, degrees, and employment. Students who participate in ISAs, however, are already employed, already hold credentials, and are not students of need. These outcome criteria simply don’t apply.

Although the split among these three funding metrics is still evolving, there is no doubt a “one size fits all” formula does not meet California’s needs for funding first responder training. Community colleges and their public safety partners face the prospect of bearing the full cost of offering this training with reduced resources, limiting our ability to serve this important role and potentially jeopardizing public safety. This is a deeply concerning prospect, given the projections for increased wildfires and other natural disasters statewide in which public safety resources will demand well-trained professionals.

Time is of the essence on this issue. The funding formula’s oversight committee is currently deliberating whether to incorporate ISAs into the funding formula—a process far too lengthy given the urgency of resolving the problem. Therefore, the legislative solution provided by AB 720—separating this category of FTES from the current metrics and keeping ISA classes outside the funding formula—is vitally important.

For that reason, I respectfully request that AB 720 be moved from suspense and to the Senate floor for a vote.

Best regards,

Dena P. Maloney, Ed.D.
Superintendent/President
El Camino College

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 Fire Technology Company Officer descriptors and Model Curricula

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Greetings Fire Technology FDRG Members,

Congratulations! We have posted as final the Fire Technology Company Officer descriptors and Model Curricula (MC) to the C-ID website, and colleges can now submit comparable courses for review.  As a reminder, courses are submitted to the C-ID system through your campus Articulation Officer.

You can find the descriptors posted on our website under the Descriptors tab, and the MC posted on the Model Curriculum tab.

Thank you for taking part in this process. Your commitment to your discipline is evident and the time spent in working on the descriptors is very much appreciated.

Thank you!

Miguel Rother 

Director of Grants and Initiatives

Academic Senate for California Community Colleges

One Capitol Mall, Suite 230
Sacramento | CA | 95814
916 445 4753 | ph
916 323 9867 | fx
www.c-id.net
www.asccc.org

 

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2019 Toolbox Project

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Click below to view the 2019 Toolbox Project:

Toolbox Doc.pdf

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President’s Spring Message

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First I want to say I am honored to serve as the President of the CFTDA. I want to recognize and thank our outgoing President, Randy Collins. He embodies the ideal Fire Technology Educator. He has put in countless hours over the last 6 years as the Secretary, Vice President and finally as our President of the CFTDA. I cannot thank Randy enough for the contribution he has given to our association and I can only hope to continue build on what Randy has created.

Next I want to recognize our new Board of Directors:

Vice President – Peter Cacossa from Fresno City College
Secretary – Bob Buell from Chabot College
Treasurer – Scott Jaeggi from Rio Hondo College 

 

They have already committed a substantial amount of time, work and effort into our 2018/2019 goals. Some of the goals include:

• Updating our website and making it mobile friendly.

• Making a list of universities that are working with California Community College Fire Technology Programs for our members to access.

• Providing sample 4-year articulation agreements to share with the membership and post on our website.

• Placing the FF1 Tool Box Kit and the C-ID project of the Course Outline of Records (CORs) for the SFT courses required for the new Company Officer curriculum on our website.

• Continuing to build on the Firefighter I & II CID project and placing it on our website.

• Collecting examples of best practice Strong Workforce Initiative applications / templates which will be housed on our website.

• Creating an online store for member attire linked to our website:

https://www.companycasuals.com/calfiretech/start.jsp

• Creating an electronic payment system for membership dues on our website.

• Obtaining website sponsors to help pay for items related to the CFTDA, i.e. website maintenance, travel to Nat’l Development Symposium, conduct lobbying, pay for social events, etc.

• Creating a list of member assignments/organizational chart including which members are assigned to what and making it available on our website (i.e. standing committees, work groups, projects, Nat. Dev. Symposium, STEAC, Grants, Steering Committees and Fee Committee, etc.)

Needless to say, the Board of Directors and our members are extremely busy working on these goals and I want to thank them for all the work they are doing.

For those who missed our January 19 meeting at Santa Ana College, quite a bit was covered. The meeting started with a SFT update by Kris Rose (Instructor Registration, Course Requests, Certifications – [email protected]) and Chris Fowler (Field Operations, ARTP/ALA – [email protected]). State Fire Training’s report was detailed as usual and addressed the plethora of changes occurring in their universe. Prior to our next meeting, I would encourage you to go to their website (http://osfm.fire.ca.gov/training/training).

We had a presentation by Hope Gottlieb and her staff from Jones & Bartlett covering the changes with their texts and resources. Dave Mattox from the University of Alaska gave a presentation on their internship program and articulation process for their 4-year and graduate programs that are perfect pathways for our ARTP academy graduates. Kurtis Bennett from San Diego F.D. and Jeff Hugh’s from Orange Co. F.A. gave presentations on Cancer & Mental Health Awareness. Much of the discussion circled around how we can include this in our academy curriculum. Bob Buell gave an update from the Firefighter I & II cadre who had their last meeting in January (click here to view the power point). The cadre will be meeting again in March and our representatives from the cadre will be giving an update at our May CFTDA meeting.

We have many exciting and important updates in store for our May 9th & 10th meeting at State Fire Training. This will be our first meeting at their new building.

Meeting location: 2251 Harvard Street #400 Sacramento, CA 95815

Hotel: Hilton Sacramento Arden West (916) 922-4700, Government Rate: $95 Per Night Not Including taxes and Fees (these gov. rate slots are filling up quickly so please make reservations soon)

I am confident you will find it well worth your while to attend our May meeting (click here to view agenda). In addition to our usual standing agenda items, we tentatively have a presentation from John Konrad on IFSTA’s new Essentials book. We hope to have Vice Chancellor of CTE Sheneui Weber to share her vision for CCCCO CTE programs with us, Brian Rice the President of CPF for a Q & A session and Joe Gonzalez from Fireblast who will present his new fire training props. Lunch will be provided and there is a tentative plan for a hosted dinner by one of our vendors, as well.

Do not forget to mark your calendars for our other 2019 meetings which include Monterey (Sept. 19) and Fresno (Nov 21).

I hope to see you all at our May 2019 meetings as it is shaping up to be a very productive and worth-while event.

Respectfully,
Matthew Jewett
President, CFTDA
Fire Technology
Sierra College

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California Fire/EMS Professional Development Pathway

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California Fire/EMS Professional Development Pathway

Through a partnership with Cal Chiefs, CPFF, the California Community Colleges, State Fire Training and the CSU’s, the CFTDA is participating in an effort known as the “California Fire/EMS Professional Development Pathway”. The project represents a concerted effort to expand concurrent fire programs at high schools and to integrate SFT’s certification tracks into the transferable units at Community Colleges and CSU’s with the ultimate goal of having a pathway that begins prior to the college setting and runs through the Executive Chief officer level. To read more, click on the link below.

Click Here for More Information

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Questionmark Student-Proctor Instructions

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QUESTIONMARK STUDENT-PROCTOR INSTRUCTIONS

If you are an ARTP or ALA conducting the SFT Certification Written Test, the directions for use of and how to negotiate the Questionmark website are included below. The first 2 pages consist of those instructions to be shared with your students and candidates who will be taking the exam. The second two pages are for Proctors only. Please note that if you are a Proctor, you will need to be issued a Username and Password from SFT first.

QUESTIONMARK STUDENT-PROCTOR INSTRUCTIONS

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