MARIETTA, Ga. — Just a week before school starts, the hallways at Park Street Elementary School in Marietta were empty, but soon those hallways will be packed.
“This school is 70 years old. We are looking to build a new school just a few feet from our current building,” Dr. Grant Rivera, Superintendent for Marietta City Schools said.
While Rivera is focused on the future of his schools, like Park Street, right now, he said a big focus has been keeping schools safe.
Thanks to the $30,000 going to each public school statewide.
“Our priority has been making sure that in every one of our schools we have secure vestibules as you enter into the schools. So, no longer do we have doors where someone can get into the front set of doors and then can get access to children and staff,” he explained.
“The front of each of our schools it’ll have a coded entry. It will require someone with a badge to get in,” Rivera mentioned.
$68.8 million in the state’s budget is geared towards school security.
That’s a one-time $30,000 school security grant to the nearly 2,300 Georgia public schools. Last year, each school district received a base amount of $25,000 to go towards school security.
11Alive reached out to school districts across metro Atlanta and here’s what we found out:
- Gwinnett County Schools said it’s still considering options on how to spend the money.
- DeKalb County Schools said they will have idea of what to do with the money soon.
- Meanwhile Clayton County Schools plans to spend it on surveillance cameras, drones, metal detectors, building control improvements, along with other things. The school district also said, “the district is also exploring opportunities to implement various technological advancements.”
- As for Fulton County Schools, they told us each school will undergo a safety assessment first before making they make any decisions.
- Atlanta Public Schools said in a statement, “as a part of our overall safety and security plan, we are currently working on a budget proposal which has to be submitted and approved by the state. we plan to complete this next week.”
- Paulding County Schools released this lengthy statement:
Our pre-planning meetings with the school administrators took place [recently], and our executive director of safety and operations went over the requirements of the state safety/security grant and explained how we need to plan with each of them the most effective way to use the funds at each school. The requirement is that $30,000 be spent at each of the district’s 33 schools by June 30, 2020. the money cannot be pooled for, say, a district-wide security upgrade. We have to spend the same $30k at high schools that we do at elementary schools. there will be some items that will be consistent for each school, and each school will also have unique needs and plans. Schools are now in the process of developing their initial requests. Since the funding is through reimbursement, what we want to avoid are safety upgrades that don’t end up getting approved for reimbursement. Here are some of the suggestions we gave them for items we know are approved.
- cameras
- fencing
- classroom phones
- communication system
- raptor upgrades
- radios
Rivera said the new resources allow for more safety precautions to be taken.
“Whether if it’s vestibules that we put in place in our middle schools, high schools and at our elementary schools. Whether it is increased and improved cameras throughout the building, now, we are looking at [a] variety of options because now we have a resource we didn’t have before,” Rivera said.
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