OCEAN CITY — With most of the Ocean City Beach Patrol officers and rank-and-file lifeguards now toiling away in lecture halls and classrooms around the region, a look at just how many in the organization are educators reveals their value far exceeds the scheduling challenges they often present.
It’s no secret the Ocean City Beach Patrol is made up largely of students, teachers, school administrators and even college professors, but the extent to which the department relies on those who return to school each late summer was not entirely known until a recent study by long-time OCBP Captain Butch Arbin. At the request of Mayor Rick Meehan, Arbin collected the data regarding educators on the Beach Patrol and presented the information to Emergency Services Director Joe Theobald recently.
Theobald, in turn, presented the findings to the Ocean City Police Commission last month and provided additional information to Meehan and the commission as recently as this week. The overall intent of the report is to gain a better understanding of the challenges presented by having a largely education-invested Beach Patrol workforce in terms of the start, and perhaps more importantly, the end of the summer season.
The information was requested by Meehan, who is gathering facts for another attempt at a mandated post-Labor Day start to the school year in Maryland. Last year, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, along with Senator Jim Mathias (D-38) and many of the Lower Shore’s delegation in Annapolis pushed legislation mandating a post-Labor Day school start in Maryland. The bill got little traction, but already a renewed effort is being planned with the 2016 General Assembly session looming and information regarding the Ocean City Beach Patrol’s reliance on educators could help illustrate the perceived need for the change.
While it certainly provides for a highly educated and talented OCBP, it does create some challenges. With the number of members, particularly high-ranking officers, many of whom are teachers, administrators and college professors, along with the rank-and-file, many of whom are students, the dramatic exodus in mid- to late-August each summer creates challenges for the department. Despite the challenges, Arbin said this week he wouldn’t have it any other way.
The long-time captain said this week the three pillars of the OCBP are education, prevention and intervention, and while his charges are highly adept at all three, it is the first component on which his department thrives, largely because of their collective educational background. While watching the water, intervening and making rescues are job one for the OCBP, much of the former is prevented by having a highly educated and trained beach patrol. Each day throughout the summer, lifeguards provide lessons to the visitors on their respective beaches on daily dangers including potential rip currents, changing weather patterns and other potentially dangerous conditions. The lessons are repeated in weekly seminars conducted largely by the department’s leadership on Sundays after the large turnover each weekend.
“Having educators throughout our organization helps with the delivery of our message day in and day out in the summer and with our weekly seminars on Sunday after turnover days,” he said. “Not only are they highly skilled surf rescue technicians, but they are educators and are skilled at getting our message out. While it’s obviously not a school or classroom setting, they are applying the same teaching techniques out on the beach.”
Emphasizing the importance of education and prevention is what sets the OCBP apart from many other beach patrols in coastal communities and is made possible largely because of the members whose careers are largely education-related.
“The Ocean City Beach Patrol emphasizes education and that is very unique among beach patrols in other communities,” he said. “Because they are educators, they have the summers off, and as a result, we have the best, most educated and experienced organization we could possibly have.”
Arbin is an educator in the Charles County public school system and two lieutenants are educators. Of the 12 OCBP sergeants currently on staff, eight are educators and two are college professors. There are 18 crew chiefs, of which eight are educators and one is a college professor. In terms of the 17 assistant crew chiefs, 10 are students.
Historically, most of the Beach Patrol’s captains have come from education backgrounds, largely because of the opportunity for summers off and seasonal employment, but the side effect for decades has been a highly skilled and trained department.
“We have some crew chiefs that have been with us for 20 years,” he said. “That’s unheard of. When I started, four years on the Beach Patrol was a long time because most did summers while they were in college and moved on. Having educators in our leadership positions and throughout the rank and file gives us a tremendous amount of expertise.”
Arbin said the benefits far outweigh the challenges presented, in terms of limited availability due to school calendar constraints.
“With our leadership and rank and file officers coming from education backgrounds, we have people who are professional year after year,” he said.
“We end up with the very best people, but with that comes some challenges in terms of availability. They are professionals with professional standards and work ethics.”
A look at the total number of Surf Rescue Technicians (SRTs) working the beach further illustrates the annual late summer drain. For example, in the first week of August, the chart shows over 120 SRTs on the beach and that figure held fairly steady until about mid-August. Starting on Aug. 16 this year, the number of OCBP crewmembers working the beach begins a rather dramatic free fall toward the end of summer.
By Aug. 30, the number had dropped to around 50 and by Labor Day Monday, which was the latest it could be this year, the number of SRTs had dipped to below 40. A different chart reveals the decline in another way. For example, on Aug. 9, just three SRTs had left to return to school. By Aug. 21, 25 percent of the ranks had left and a week later on Aug. 28, the number had dropped by 50 percent. On the last day of the season on Sept. 27, the number of SRTs had dropped to just 11, or in other terms, was about 91 percent less than where it had been a month earlier.
Because of the staffing challenges, Arbin said he has been keeping a close eye on the effort for a mandated post-Labor Day school start, both as OCBP captain and an educator himself.
“There would be a definite benefit for us with a post-Labor Day public school start,” he said. “Teachers typically go back a week before the students, and some counties in Maryland are going back in the second or third week of August. Some counties this year went back a full three weeks before Worcester County. As an educator, I live in both worlds and we still need to get in those required 180 days, but there are creative ways of reaching that.”
Each year presents its own challenges, according to Arbin, but this year was particularly unique.
“This year, the school calendar created some definite challenges for us,” he said. “Memorial Day was the earliest it can be and Labor Day was the latest it can be. It’s just cyclical with the calendar and it happens every six years. Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day and Sunfest are critical points in the year for us. With Memorial Day so early this year, it was critical for us because for many of our officers it was still weeks away from the end of the school year. Likewise, Sunfest ended Sept. 27, which is when we are finished for the season, but that was the latest it could be this year.”