Courtesy Bill Webb

The Pulaski County Fire Department completed a recent training for extraction. Extraction is one of the courses that students at Pulaski County High School can take if the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant is approved.

| Anna L. Mallory

anna.mallory@roanoke.com, 381-8627

Pulaski County's juniors and seniors could get the chance to take classes in firefighting and receive training as emergency medical technicians next school year.

And local emergency officials think it could help in recruiting and retaining staff members.

Last week, the county's school board approved a grant proposal to obtain $165,000 from a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant.

If approved, the courses would start in the 2011 academic year. The school system is working with the county's emergency management department and the eight Pulaski County Volunteer Fire Departments on the proposal.

Its goal is to help local fire departments with staffing. SAFER offers two types of grants, those that support hiring and those that support recruitment. The classes would focus on recruiting.

"This is a way that they can do it as part of their school," said Bobby Clark, Pulaski County's emergency services coordinator. "It gives them a vocation they can get into after they get out of school."

Students in the courses would receive certifications qualifying them to hold volunteer or entry-level paid positions on fire departments or rescue squads. They also will be qualified to further their education in those fields outside the school system.

Clark said recruiting firefighters to volunteer squads is particularly difficult, and successful programs in other parts of the state have been in place for nearly 30 years.

"You can always use more volunteers, especially during the day time," he said.

The grant application will be put in by the Sept. 18 deadline.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Christiansburg High receives drug grant

Montgomery County Public Schools received more than $48,000 to implement a substance abuse prevention program at Christiansburg High School that 100 students will participate in this school year, according to a news release from the county.

The money came from the Governor's Office for Substance Abuse Prevention.

Project SUCCESS is designed to prevent and reduce substance use and abuse among teens. Its components include education, counseling, parent programs and referral services. With this program, New River Valley Community Services will provide a prevention specialist who will help implement the program.

"The Project SUCCESS program components have a proven track record of decreasing substance abuse indicators among youth, including violence, truancy and low commitment to school," said Rebecca Counts, student services supervisor for MCPS.

The county is looking for a downturn in substance abuse among students. Each of the county's four high schools already has student assistance programming teams, which are designed to target at-risk students who might have attendance, academic or even substance abuse problems.

This new pilot program at CHS will work together with that, Counts said.

Project SUCCESS is one of 17 projects across the Commonwealth to be selected by the Governor's Office for Substance Abuse Prevention to receive grant funding for safe and drug-free schools.