Safety & Security Conference

The Second Annual . . .

MISSOURI CONFERENCE ON COORDINATED SCHOOL AND COLLEGE SAFETY AND SECURITY

The Hiltons of Branson
200 E. Main St.
Branson, Missouri
Ph. 417-336-5400
August 14 and 15, 2008

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Background

Registration is now being accepted for the Second Annual Conference on Coordinated School and College Safety and Security. Registration can be completed online at www.schoolsafetyconference.com. Other conference information can also be found at that web site.

The Second Annual Conference on Coordinated School and College Safety and Security is intended to assist persons who govern and work in public and nonpublic schools and colleges, universities, post-secondary educational institutions, law enforcement, the health community, fire fighters, emergency responders, and others in keeping Missouri's schools and colleges safe-members of these groups are all appropriate participants in the conference.

While schools and colleges are relatively safe places, they can be made safer. As such, the conference will:

• Provide information about best practices for making schools and colleges safer;
  
• Share lessons learned from prior incidents of violence that has taken place at educational institutions;
  
• Bring together experts and professionals to consider and discuss effective violence prevention and intervention strategies as well as to network.
  
• Provide conference participants an opportunity to interact with key Missouri state officials, including Governor Matt Blunt, and others who influence policies and practices of schools and colleges.
  

As the name of the conference suggests, the provision of safe and secure schools and colleges requires a coordinated approach. One of the themes of the conference will be to understand the cooperative effort that is necessary to ensure that schools and colleges in Missouri's communities remain safe. This means that school and college officials, law enforcement, health professionals, fire fighters, and other "first responders" in concert with state officials must be meaningfully involved in planning and preparing for incidents that mitigate the provision of safe and secure schools and colleges.

All pre-conference and conference events of the Second Annual Conference on Coordinated School and College Safety and Security will take place at the Branson Convention Center, Branson, Missouri. The post-conference activity will take place in a building facility of the Branson R-IV School District, Branson.

The Second Annual Conference on Coordinated School and College Safety and Security is produced by the Missouri School Boards' Association (MSBA), 2100 I-70 Drive Southwest, Columbia. MSBA is responsible for the content and organization of the event.

Missouri school board members can earn four (4) CBM (Certified Board Member) credits for taking part in the (full) conference (CBM credit is not available to school board members in the pre-conference or post-conference activities); law enforcement officers can earn a maximum of twenty (20) hours POST (Peace Officers Standards Training) credits at the conference together with the pre- and post-conference events. POST credit for specific sessions of the conference and the pre- and post-conference activities is noted on the following agendas.

Inquiries about the Second Annual Conference on Coordinated School and College Safety and Security should be directed to Dr. Joel D. Denney, Associate Executive Director, Missouri School Boards' Association.(denney@msbanet.org).

The date and location for the 2009 Annual Conference on Coordinated School and College Safety and Security will be announced in August 2008.