The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 106, No. 43 - October 26, 2017
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............6
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................14
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................6
Legals............................ 12,13
Letters...................................3
Obituaries.............................3
Real Estate...........8-11,15,16
Sports....................................5
Weekend
Forecast
The Herald in Dodger Stadium
Go Blue!
Our loyal readers over the years have brought the El Segundo Herald to remote locales ranging from Iceland to the Pyramids, but sometimes close is cool too. So it was extra special when the Bergrens posed
for this photo before Game One of the World Series this past Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. It turned out to be a big hit… and they met a rather tall friend in the process! Photo Provided by Gregg McMullin. •
City Looks to Improve Disaster
Preparedness with New Programs
By Brian Simon
It seems that barely a week goes past without
news of some major catastrophe somewhere in
the world. The recent list includes devastating
fires that ravaged wine country in Northern
California, ongoing hurricanes in the southeastern
Richmond Street Elementary Takes
Center Stage at ES School Board Meeting
By Duane Plank
Richmond Street Elementary School
Principal Alice Lee and her team of
presenters took the spotlight at Tuesday
evening’s El Segundo School Board meeting.
Board Vice President Emilee Layne
chaired the session in lieu of the absent
President Bill Watkins.
Bolstered by the contributions of Assistant
Principal Rebecca Godbey and
Cotsen Math Mentor Christine Quinn,
the 25-minute presentation, heavily datadriven,
touched on gathered analytics
from last year’s parent/staff/student surveys,
scores from the California Assessment
of Student Performance and Progress
(CAASPP) exam, and a renewed focus and
strategies guiding the school’s professional
development “trajectory” for 2017-2018. It
also incorporated the WATER (We Activate,
Transform, Empower at Richmond) theme
that is the 2017-18 calling at the campus.
The presentation highlighted accomplishments
at the school, as well as areas
in which Richmond may need to ramp
up certain offerings--including helping the
students understand clear rules governing
behavior and discipline, as well as the
need to make sure all students feel safe
during their daily stay at the school.
“We are excited to share all the wonderful
efforts and programs we have in
place with the Board,” emailed Lee, prior
to the meeting. “Everything we do is to
empower students.”
portion of the United States, major
earthquakes in Mexico and elsewhere, and
the tragic shooting in Las Vegas. El Segundo
itself recently had an incident when a major
fire broke out at the local refinery. Fortunately,
crews extinguished the blaze quickly and
minimized the damage. But when considering
the odds of some sort of disaster happening
in our backyard—particularly an earthquake
given our location on fault lines in Southern
California—the experts continue to say that
it’s not a matter of if, but when (and sooner
than later most likely).
With that in mind, the City of El Segundo
has ramped up its commitment to improve its
disaster preparedness. In fact, the City Council
identified it as a major initiative and authorized
the June hiring of Emergency Management
Coordinator Randal Collins to serve as point
person in the collective effort. Upon coming
aboard, Collins immediately began to evaluate
and assess City systems, resources, capabilities
and plans. With support of other department
heads, he has proposed several goals. “The
first is the development of an All-Hazards Incident
Management Team that will be used as
a crisis management team when disasters and
large-scale emergencies befall the community,”
Collins said. “The team will consist of select
City employees who will receive advanced
training in incident management.” Also in the
works is basic disaster service worker training
for all City employees who may be called in to
action to work in roles other than their current
job during an incident.
The revival of the Community Emergency
Response Team (CERT) was also a top priority.
A joint endeavor of the El Segundo Fire
Department and Emergency Management Office,
the program provides training spread over
several sessions for individuals to learn how
to work with their neighbors in responding to
a disaster. The course covers light search and
rescue, First Aid, fire extinguisher training,
general disaster preparedness, terrorism, and
disaster psychology. The City held a CERT
refresher training on September 23 (as part
of National Preparedness Month) and a fall
academy October 18-21 that was well-attended.
“We hope to have 1,700 participating and trained
CERT members over the next several years,”
Collins said of the plan to get 10 percent of
El Segundo’s residential population involved
in the program.
Then on October 19 at 10:19 a.m., all City
employees participated in The Great Shake-Out
—an annual nationwide earthquake drill that
occurs simultaneously across America. “It’s
designed to raise awareness and educate about
the dangers of earthquakes,” Collins said. “The
exercise concluded with an emergency preparedness
education session for City employees.”
This afternoon--as part of the weekly Farmer’s
Market on Main Street between 3 and 7 p.m.-
-the City will hold an emergency preparedness
fair with representatives from El Segundo
Police and Fire and Emergency Management
present. Other notable attendees will include
See Disaster Preparedness, page 4 Friday
Sunny
76˚/63˚
Saturday
Sunny
78˚/62˚
Sunday
Sunny
76˚/63˚
See School Board, page 13
Go Dodgers!