Any education leader will tell you the top priority of any school is to keep children safe. Clackamas ESD takes that obligation seriously, and provides a high level of support to 38 school districts throughout northwest Oregon, thanks to funding from a five-year federal emergency management grant funneled through the Oregon Department of Education.
Dan Kraus, a former Marine officer who spent 28 years in multiple positions in the Clackamas County Sheriff’‘s Office, is a highly trained emergency management expert who now serves as Clackamas ESD’s emergency operations/school safety specialist. In that role, he provides a range of training to district staff and leaders in our region, from one-on-one consultation, to facilitation of detailed exercises to rehearse emergency situations.
He has a special passion for building emergency operations plans. During the 2022-23 school year, he is helping the Canby School District create an updated plan, and he recently saved another northwest Oregon school district $250,000 by assisting them at no cost.
“People are intimidated by these plans and often want to hire a contractor to build them, but they really just need a guide,” Dan said. “The process of writing the plan is what provides the value, and the fact that many people on a district team have a hand in it – from those focused on equity to those managing facilities – makes the result a much better product.”
Plans are one thing, and ability to implement them is another. Alone or with other trainers, Dan has led or participated in 125 activities over the past year to help school districts practice for emergencies. In particular, he’s been working frequently with the Estacada and Molalla River school districts on elements of their planning and implementation.
“I think schools forget about how important secretaries, custodians and other support staff are in handling a crisis,” Dan emphasized. “I participated in an all-day training for facilities personnel in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District at the beginning of the 2022 school year, and it was one of the most enjoyable trainings I’ve done. Everyone was engaged.”
As someone who spent decades of his life as a first responder – and still volunteers for Team Rubicon, an international veteran-led disaster response organization – Dan knows the value of thinking creatively and forging human connections.
“I’m trying to bring outside-the-box thinking to emergency management, and building relationships between educators and first responders,” Dan explained. “You don’t want to wait until a crisis hits to learn how to work together.”
