Story By Hunter Jones

With school back in session, students at the Kevin Dukes Career and Innovation Academy have a new door open to them this school year. The Fire Science program, headed by Scottsboro Fire Chief Jon Lee, will take students on a path to earn their volunteer firefighter certification, with a 160 hour course, including a live fire scenario.

“They’ll get the works… Pretty much everything that a normal firefighter does just on a shorter timeframe,” Lee said.

The program is a culmination of two years spent planning. The interest began with the YouScience program, an aptitude and interest test provided to the academy. The academy’s career coaches pulled that data from the tests and use it to see where they stand in terms of keeping their programs up-to-date and applicable to trends in the area. From there, they spoke to people within the industry, gauged interest from students and made the decision to add a Fire Science program.

“The fire department, like most places in public safety, they don’t have enough employees and they have a lot of openings. It’s hard to fill those openings because there aren’t a lot of people out there that are certified so this is a win-win for Jackson County and the City of Scottsboro to make sure that we can implement this program and have trained professionals that are ready to step on the job day one,” McNutt said.

Once a student graduates and receives their certificate, they will be able to go to the Alabama Fire College’s Bridge Program, condensing the normally 10-week schooling to just six weeks to upgrade their volunteer certification to become fully, professionally certified.

After deciding to start the Fire Science program, the search for a lead instructor began. The search required someone who reached the certifications and could provide the highest level of education. Over time, the Jackson County Board of Education approached the City of Scottsboro about making Lee the lead instructor for the program. The agreement between the two is a rare partnership in this context. Though Lee will serve as the chief instructor, he says that it will not add too much to his regular duties, only adding a few hours in the morning two to three days per week.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the students, first and foremost. Having this opportunity to get some training and certification, it will definitely benefit the city and the county having students come out of high school with volunteer certification and being able to get on with a volunteer department with the county and it could also be an advantage for (Scottsboro Fire Department) for hiring here. It’s just a great program all in all for the whole county,” Lee said.

With Lee leading the program, McNutt is confident that the program will be a success and help better the community, pointing out the 32 volunteer fire departments in Jackson County and the manpower needed to fill those roles once the current ones retire.

“We got (volunteer fire department’s) input as well and a lot of these are aging departments as fa as their members go so this will help assist our volunteer fire departments and make sure they’re fully staffed. Our kids with the certification can jump right in there and help their communities out,” McNutt said. “I just want to thank all the parties involved that have helped make this happen. I guess you could say we have a sort of trailblazer throughout the state with this kind of partnership with the City of Scottsboro, the Jackson County Board of Education and we just thank everybody for that.”

As Lee is approaching his first day leading the classroom, he is filled with excitement, nerves and anxiousness to pass on his knowledge to the next generation and help lead the way for a new program.

“(I’m looking forward to) all of it… (Teaching high school students) is a first but all of us are pretty much instructors and teach in some capacity in fire service,” Lee said. “(KDICA) has a lot of opportunities going on for high school students and I think this is a great program to add to it. Hopefully this can grow from here and maybe even include the law side of it down the road. Fantastic opportunity for the City of Scottsboro and the Scottsboro Fire Department to be involved, I know the Hollywood Fire Department will be involved being so close to the school and I think the volunteer community is really looking forward to it hopefully adding some volunteer firefighters right out of high school,” Lee said.