09-07-16 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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Chief Cox stated that they do run their own academy. We have an ongoing regional fire recruit academy here in South Bend, and we've taken in recruits from other neighboring departments from throughout the region. Michigan City and La Porte send us recruits, and we do have interest from a handful of other departments. Some of that just depends on when they need folks hired and if it correlates with when we are running the academies. There are other departments throughout the state that also run academies, and depending on timing, they might deem it necessary to choose one over the other. We've had success with that, and we are starting a new academy next week with eight (8) of our own recruits from our current hiring list along with five (5) from Michigan City and three (3) from La Porte. Additionally, the state of Indiana sent us money to cover consumables such as plywood, hay, and gas. They've actually funded us as well to help with what we are doing at our training center. We are also in our second year of running a high school academy in conjunction with the South Bend School Corporation. We started with thirteen (13) students, most were seniors and juniors, and we had a few sophomores in the group. This year we ended with ten (10) students, and one (1) of the success stories out of that ten (10) is that we had three (3) of those students fill out applications in our application process. One (1) of them tested all of the way through. He is still in the process, so that is a huge success. We were trying to create a flow of local students into the department. This year we started two (2) separate classes of high school students, and we're up to twenty -seven (27) high school students now. It is a dual- credit co -op program where the students actually get IVY Tech credit hours along with South Bend School credit hours. When they finish the program they're able to take their state certification exams through the Fire Department. Committeemember Williams- Preston asked if it was part of the CTE program. Chief Cox stated yes, and we just started it last year. Committeemember Williams- Preston asked if they all train together. Chief Cox said that all of the high schools participate, and they get dropped off either at the training center or the Central Fire Station. We've had tremendous feedback from the parents and the teachers, and the school corporation was astounded and very happy with the program. Another accomplishment from this past year is our wellness initiative. This year, we are adding work performance evaluations to the physicals to ensure that all firefighters on the department are physically fit. We've created this in conjunction with a private company out of Indianapolis that has worked with several other fire departments and had tremendous success with their programs. We really wanted to have the same success as the Indianapolis Fire Department. After four (4) years of this program, they reduced sick calls by twenty -five percent (25 %), workman's comp claims by about fifty percent (50 %), and they had several other things as far as health goes that were phenomenal that translated to lower health care costs. Rob Yeary gave us stats today, and our workman's comp claims are actually down this year. El