The state has found a way to move telephone numbers around so it can respond faster when disaster hits. It’s part of the lessons of Hurricane Katrina that might help disaster recovery here. For example: Assume a tornado wipes out the telephone company switching office in your town. It not only wipes out your ability to call out, it also wipes out the ability of others–including relief agencies—to call in. But now the same company that arranges to switch personal telephone numbers when customers switch cell-phone companies has found a way for emergency responders to move to undamaged areas and keep their regular numbers. State homeland security coordinator Paul Fennewald says his own agency could move its number from Jefferson City to some other city and by electronically shifting its number to the undamaged local switching office, could be back in operation with its regular number. The Department of Public Safety has tested the system, which is called “porting,” and says new phone links were established a matter of minutes. Fennewald says the new system would not mean that people living in the stricken area could call out. But if they move to an undamaged community where the local phone-switching equipment is operational, they could keep their regular number so people could contact them.
Education Report to General Assembly Points to Teacher Retention Concerns
A State Education Department report headed to the General Assembly takes a look at the recruitment and retention of teachers in Missouri public schools. And, it finds that while new people are being attracted to the teaching profession, there is concern about holding onto them once they become teachers. Rosalyn Wieberg, the Department’s Assistant Director of Educator Recruitment and Retention, says there are 68,120 teachers in Missouri public school systems – up more than 1,500 from the last school year’s total. But about a quarter of the new recruits leave the classroom within three years, and more than a third are gone within five years. She says there are several reasons for this, including a lack of administrative support, poor working conditions, and a lack of mentoring from older, experienced teachers. Wieberg says that while salaries are important, they usually have little to do with retention.
MU Launches Another Year of Domestic Violence Research
The University of Missouri Law School is launching a third year of domestic violence research in Missouri – after the Department of Public safety renewed their grant for the study. Law Professor Mary Beck says the study looks at civil protective orders as well as incident reports and prosecutions related to domestic violence. She says the data they are analyzing are meant to help law enforcement officials and shelter workers successfully deal with domestic violence issues. Beck says so far the study reveals that police don’t always file reports, prosecutors don’t always prosecute filed reports, and judges don’t always grant prosecutors the exceptions in evidence needed for domestic violence cases. But, Beck says law enforcement agencies throughout most of the state handle these types of cases well. She points to Boone County’s Domestic Violence Enforcement Unit – saying that team focuses on coordination between shelter workers, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and judges. She says it is the local communities, which lack the resources for such coordination, that struggle with domestic violence issues.
