Jersey Bartley, 18, of Rindge, is set to go to Framingham State University, where she'll be pursuing a degree in criminology. 

She said she has had an interest in the field since she was a young child watching crime shows with her grandmother, but didn’t know it was what she wanted to do until she was able to get a taste of it in criminal justice and forensics classes at Conant Middle High School.

Bartley completed all the courses the school had to offer on the subject and would have taken more – had they been available.

Currently in her senior year, Bartley won’t see the fruits of a proposed Career and Technical Education Center addition that is proposed for the school, but she hopes that voters approve the project for future students who, like her, have an interest in criminal justice, criminology or emergency medical services. Public safety and security is one of the new tracks that would be offered in the proposed expansion.

“I think it’s incredibly important,” Bartley said of having a wide range of class options that might introduce students to potential career tracks. “This is our time that we’re trying to figure out what we want to do; it’s a scary time. We have to settle what we want, and what paths the world has, and there are so many paths. There’s a lot we can do.”

Bartley, whose ultimate goal is joining a city police department and working her way up to homicide detective, said the classes she took helped her form that goal. She said she would have been interested in a dedicated career track that included a ride-along with a local police department and the potential for college credits and certifications,

“I definitely think this is a need, and I hope they approve the funding for it,” Bartley said. “I really hope they decide to do this.” 

The public safety and security track is planned to be the largest expansion to the CTE program, adding four courses per semester, plus an Emergency Medical Technician course.

The EMT course would offer up to 12 seats per year, with students completing their certification at the end of the year. The security and public safety track would offer a total of 192 seats per year, and the district anticipates that about 48 students would complete the track per year. As per the district’s agreement with its regional partners, 75% of those seats would be reserved for Conant students and  25% would be available for Mascenic and ConVal.

There are several avenues that students could pursue in the track, explained Conant Principal David Dustin, including criminal justice and forensics. Dustin also said students have long asked for the EMT certification course.

“That is an extremely popular course that our students are asking for, and we have not been able to find seats for,” said Dustin.

Currently, the district offers a forensic science and DNA class, but does not have a formal career training for any sector of public safety. The courses could involve partnerships with outside agencies, including the State Police.

“It would add courses to what we already have,” said Dustin.

The rising need

Lt. Mitch McQuade of Peterborough Fire and Rescue graduated from Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative in 2019, but took a combined Firefighter I and EMT course through ConVal’s CTE center. The course has since been discontinued.

Coming from a family of firefighters, McQuade said he knew he wanted to take the course as early as possible. 

“And I knew, because I was a Fire Explorer with Peterborough, that if you look at any department, something like 80% of the calls they respond to are medical,” McQuade said. “At a young age, I learned the importance of having those skills, especially in on-call and volunteer services – they can always use EMS skills.”

McQuade said he made connections in that class who today are still his mentors, and some are now his co-workers. 

Students at Conant showed a high interest in a public safety and security pathway. A district-wide survey in 2023, with 137 students responding, showed that 41.4% of them were interested in courses in a public safety track.

Potential job fields students can enter are varied, but some of them, including law enforcement and the EMT or paramedic professions, are growing in the state. Both sectors are experiencing shortages across the country, and New Hampshire is no exception. A bill introduced in the House of Representatives last month seeks funding for sign-on bonuses for state troopers and other recruitment strategies to combat the perennial understaffing.

According to the Concord Monitor, in February, the State Police were reporting 62 vacant positions, which is about 17% of its total workforce. A presentation that the district is using about the proposed CTE expansion states that for 2026, there will be about 4,000 protective service openings in Hillsborough County and about 650 openings in Cheshire County.

EMS providers have also been seeking to bolster their ranks for years. According to Jaffrey-Rindge Memorial Ambulance Chief Bill Johnson, through last year, the New Hampshire Employment Security Department provided reimbursement grants for EMT training, a grant that the Jaffrey-Rindge Memorial Ambulance used to help train a total of eight new EMTs and a retention bonus for those who stayed for at least six months.

Jaffrey-Rindge Memorial Ambulance has made major shifts in the past year to address its continual staffing issues, including increases of pay starting in June 2024, jumping EMTs from $16 to $20 per hour, AEMTs from $17.50 to $22 per hour and paramedics from $23 to $27 per hour. 

The ambulance was able to increase its staff with the pay jumps, but Johnson said the department has an eventual goal of staffing the department overnight that is not a possibility with the current available staff. Johnson said that even with the attempts to attract additional workers, he’s still about six employees short of where he’d like to be, and is actively hiring for additional per-diem workers. 

Peterborough Fire Chief Ed Walker said his department benefited in the past from a combined Firefighter I/EMT program run by ConVal Regional High School. He said several of his current employees were recruits who got their start in that program. Students were required to put in a certain amount of ride-along hours with the Peterborough ambulance.

“When they were on the ambulance, they could do anything. They were able to provide patient care to their level of training, under supervision,” explained Walker.

Johnson said the Jaffrey-Rindge Ambulance has provided ride-alongs for students in other districts taking EMT certifications, and would “absolutely” be interested in partnering with Conant on its program. He said students get to explore the ambulance and bay and go on ride-alongs where they encounter real calls. They are also able to participate in basic diagnosis procedures.

“It’s very challenging to find different ways to recruit, and that’s paramount,” said Johnson. “We need whatever resources we can leverage to reestablish that pipeline.” 

Bond vote approaches

Voters will decide Tuesday whether the CTE expansion gets off the ground. The total cost of the addition is anticipated to be $22.9 million, with Jaffrey-Rindge currently slated to receive up to 75% of certain costs of the project from funding assigned by the state for career and technical education projects. The cost includes not only the construction of the addition, which would also house an expanded building trades program and a new culinary arts program, but also outfitting the building and contingencies. 

While the final state budget has yet to be approved, the Jaffrey-Rindge project is included in Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s proposed budget, covered at more than the anticipated $16 million that would be the state’s portion.

The remaining $6.8 million is proposed to be a bond paid for by tax dollars. Because the article requires adding debt to the district, it requires a three-fifths, or 60% majority in order to pass. Jaffrey-Rindge School Board Chair Chris Ratcliffe previously said the state funding is unlikely to be available for many years if the CTE expansion fails. 

The district is holding a final community information session about the addition on Thursday, March 6, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., in the First Church in Jaffrey, 14 Laban Ainsworth Way.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.