Wednesday, December 14, 2016

TSC, CITY INK M.O.U. TO TRAIN FIRE DEPT. PARAMEDICS

By Juan Montoya
If you ever had the misfortune of requiring a city ambulance to come to your assistance, then you will be glad to hear that Texas Southmost College and the City of Brownsville have inked a Memorandum Of Understanding to make sure the paramedic who treats you is well trained and certified by the State of Texas.


This morning, with much fanfare and pomp, officials from both entities announced the MOU had been signed between city manager Charlie Cabler on behalf of the city and Mike Shannon, interim TSC president.
Attending the signing ceremony was the Fife and Drum Corps of the Brownsville Fire Dept.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Paramedic Training Program will start in Fiscal 2017 and will train students who have been identified as meeting the paramedic pre-entrance requirements as set forth by TSC and selected by the city.
The program will start as soon as possible pending approval by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Didactic and lab components will be taught at TSC's International Technology, Education and Commerce Center (ITEC).

The students will be enrolled as TSC students under the Workforce Training and Continuing Education department and are not eligible for the same benefits as traditional students. At the successful completion of the course, the students will be awarded a certificate of completion. Students will be registered as continuing education students and will not receive college credits for the course.

The city will pay for the instructional materials for the students selected to participate in the training and the college will provide the instruction in line with nationally accepted curriculum and accreditation with the Emergency Medical Service Professions.

The students will then be able to take the NRAMT-P exam.
In turn, the city agreed to provide instructors who are compliant with all TX DSHS requirements and are licensed paramedics and EMS instructors.

At a minimum, the Brownsville Fire Department will provide one lead instructor and one instructor for every six students. The city will provide documentation that the students meet all requirements, including, but not limited to immunizations, criminal backgrounds, and drug screening.

TSC agreed to pay for the first attempt a student makes to pass the written NREMT-P exam and the city agrees to pay for any subsequent attempt after that.

"Good things are happening at TSC," said board chairperson Adela Garza. "We are looking forward to enter into many more partnerships with local entities to provide certifications in the different crafts and professions as well as to fulfill our academic functions, This is just a good beginning."      

21 comments:

V. Tinker Shays said...

That sounds like a real good deal!

Anonymous said...

WHAT A DICK CARLOS FIRE CHIEF !!

Anonymous said...

No pos wow!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to the TSC new administration

Anonymous said...

Hopefully not another violation of the OPEN MEETING'S ACT.

Anonymous said...

BEFORE you start another program, FIX the nursing program and all the problems that it has, THEN you expand.

Anonymous said...

Another class preparing these heroes to go pick up the residents aka tacuaches of Brownsville !!

Anonymous said...

Let's see. The taxpayers of Brownsville provide 2 instructors at $80,000 salary including benefits for a total of $160,000 per year and the college pays only for their national registers exam which is less than $200 per student. Plus the Board of Education pays the college about 5.00 per contact hour of which a paramedic course is anywhere between 1000 to 1200 hours and gets to keep that money for their use. Juan sounds like a great deal for the College. There's more. Valley Colleges charges about 4,000 per student for a paramedic class and if you sent 15 students that's 60,000 far less that the 160,000 cost for two paramedics instructors that could be on the street saving lives.

Anonymous said...

Two paramedics can go on to make more paramedics. One of those students may well be the one to respond to your 911 call when you are having a heart attack.

Anonymous said...

Things to ponder:

1. Who is paying for the insurance?
2. How many qualified/certified instructors are presently employed by the fire department?
3. Who are these firemen/emts, and if they are assigned as instructors, who will replace them in their existing
responsibilities (and what are their existing responsibilities), and how much will that cost taxpayers?
4. While everyone can agree that a program is needed, the devil is in the details, and this program seems to be
being pushed outside of existing procedures (always a red flag for those who follow Brownsville politics).
5. Has the TSC Board, in its entirety, voted on this and approved it?
6. Finally, historically, TSC (and then UTB) had a pronounced tendency to rush into new programs while existing
programs were left to wither on the vine, starved of necessary resources. This tendency needs to be
reversed.

Anonymous said...

This is not an accredited program, the graduates get a certificate that you can wipe your ass with. They do not qualify and can not take the National Registers Exam or whatever other exam is taken to become an EMT. Their hours of instruction are not transferable to any accredited program, seems like smoke and mirrors to praise this worthless program.

Anonymous said...

Just another smoke screen to benefit someone. Puras transas

Anonymous said...

Carlos elizondo at his best with progandas, ask him why BISD terminated his program???
Making a huge mistake trusting this guy or getting involved with him.
Also, ask him about the barbacoba he and his sidekick cesar lopez were buying from Mexico and feeding it to the students and teachers!

Anonymous said...


The program was not given board approval. Adela Garza, took it upon herself, without board approval, to give the program the o.k. To confirm this, ask Tony Zavaletta if he ever voted in open session to approve the program. Adela is hungry for publicity and is acting, along with the interim president, like they own the college. It is expected that in the near future the accreditation agency will be investigating the TSC board. And the federal court case, filed by Dr. Tercero, against individual board members will expose all wrong doings by the board.

Anonymous said...

Agree the lawsuit will expose all wrong doing by Dr. Tercero

Anonymous said...

The wrong doings of the board you idiot! You'll see the boards stupidity will cost the taxpayers over half a million dollars.

Anonymous said...

Adela...evil in a skirt

Anonymous said...

Ramon Hinojosa...dead on arrival...A TSC board member who falls asleep on duty and eats Adela's leftovers

Anonymous said...

What exactly did the board do that was wrong?

Anonymous said...

Referring to the board:If you want to know what they did wrong...go to Tsc home page and watch Tersero's video of her hearing...her lawyer dissected the board to pieces

Anonymous said...

Wow!!!!!!!!!

rita