Los Gatos School Employees Participate in Emergency Preparedness

More than 300 employees will receive emergency operations training this morning that includes specific disaster preparedness assignments, officials said this week.

District Superintendent Diana Abbati wrote on her blog that the employees, who include teachers and other staff, will participate during their professional development day Thursday in simulated district-wide and school-wide emergency situations that follow so-called Incident Command System (ICS) and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) protocols.

During the hands-on workshop that takes place at , emergency operations will be reviewed by job descriptions and site-specific details, she said.

In the event of an emergency, all district employees become disaster relief workers at the school and district sites, she added.

District employees will learn the role of the EOC and its priorities, review classroom safety and preparation and other critical emergency response skills.

The district includes four public elementary schools and one middle school with a total enrollment of more than 3,000 students and more than 136 teachers.

Abbati explained that all public employees become disaster service workers pursuant to the law and are required to provide disaster relief services in the event of a natural, man-made or war-caused emergency.