FROM LEFT: On location in Lecanto, are Curt Clendenney, Citrus Sheriff Fire Rescue’s training coordinator; Denise Willis, the Withlacoochee Technical Institute’s director; and Capt. Phil Royal, director of the Citrus County Public Safety Training Center proudly display the certificate of accreditation awarded by the Council on Occupational Education to the Fire Academy and Citrus County Fire Training Center.

Fire Academy Earns Accreditation

The Citrus County Public Safety Training Center announced that the Fire Training Center and Fire Academy in Lecanto is now accredited by the Council on Occupational Education.  The accreditation was made possible through our ongoing partnership with Withlacoochee Technical Institute and the Citrus County School Board.

The Citrus County Public Safety Training Center’s Fire Academy and Fire Training Center joines the Inverness-based Withlacoochee Technical Institute (WTI), plus the Criminal Justice and Corrections academies, as accredited teaching facilities.

In keeping with the longstanding partnership between the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and School District, WTI director Denise Willis worked closely with the public safety training center’s director, Capt. Phil Royal, and Citrus Sheriff Fire Rescue’s training coordinator Curt Clendenney to provide applicable lesson plans, policies and procedures for review by the visiting assessment team.

“Accreditation clearly demonstrates that the Sheriff’s Office and Citrus County School District are aiming for the highest standards in our policies and operating procedures,” said Capt. Royal. “It makes us accountable to an accrediting authority and should increase the public’s confidence in the way we do business,” he added.

Recognized since 1995 as a national institutional accrediting agency, COE had its start in 1971 as the Commission on Occupational Education Institutions of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Back then, it was a regional accrediting association that provided accreditation services to postsecondary occupational education institutions in an 11-state region.

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