Pittsburgh Public Schools is considering adding two new tools named Quincy and Mack to help school police find drugs, guns and explosives.

Quincy and Mack are Labrador retrievers the Pittsburgh Police Training Academy has offered to donate. It would train both dogs and handlers, saving the district $11,400.

The handlers would be city school police officers, and the district would pay for the dogs' upkeep.

The district occasionally has called on city police dogs, but it does not have its own canines. While the city police dogs are trained in attack, the school dogs would not receive attack training.

One would be trained to detect drugs and the other to find guns and explosives. They would be trained in about three to five weeks.

The dogs would be part of combined city and school efforts to increase safety within 1,000 feet of schools.

The dogs would patrol outside schools and be called as needed into buildings; they may do routine patrols periodically inside buildings. They are not expected to be used to sniff people.

City school safety Chief Robert Fadzen said that weapons and drugs have been found outside elementary, middle and high schools throughout the city.

The board, which is scheduled to vote Wednesday, gave the proposal a mixed reaction at its agenda review meeting last night.

Board member Theresa Colaizzi said she is "extremely uncomfortable" with some uses of dogs in the buildings.

Board member Dan Romaniello said, "Let's just make the place safe and use every tool at our disposal."