Schools secure safety grants
Area schools were tops in their respective counties in obtaining state safety and security grants issued this week.
Boyertown Area School District received $495,000, the largest grant received in Berks County.
Pottstown Schools received a $490,000 grant, making it the top grant recipient in Montgomery County.
In Chester County, Phoenixville Area Schools came out on top with a grant of $495,000 and Owen J. Roberts had the thirdlargest grant at $343,588.
The grants were issued by the Pennsylvania School Safety and
Security Committee, a branch of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
All total, the state issued $61.2 million in this round and the three area counties grabbed $7.9 million, just shy of 13 percent of the state total.
Part of the statewide total was $7.5 million for community antiviolence programs, nearly $1 million of which was awarded to several Montgomery County agencies including:
• $300,000 to Child Advocacy Center of Montgomery County, located in East Norriton to increase access to trauma-informed services;
• $298,200 to Family Service of Montgomery County, with offices in Eagleville and Pottstown, for its Cross-County Youth Violence Reduction project;
• $205,593 to Lincoln Center for Family and Youth, based in Audubon, for its Community Violence Reduction Training Initiative;
• $170,000 to Municipality of Norristown to hire an At-Risk Youth Care Coordinator.
Pottstown Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said “the district was thrilled to learn that its PCCD grant application was successful. We would like to thank both Sen. Bob Mensch and Rep. Joe Ciresi for their continued support in the process, as well as our grant writing team and the Lincoln Center, with whom we partnered for the mental health support portion of this grant.”
“This grant will allow us to provide safety and mental health support for our students that would not normally be possible through the district budget,” Rodriguez said.
It includes, over a two year period, the following:
• Up to two mental health professionals to provide in-school support, specifically within the elementary setting.
• Professional development training for staff in trauma informed techniques and other up-to-date strategies for reaching today’s children.
• Training for specific staff to create a ‘reflective system’ that allows the district to properly track and support mental health issues in school.
• The implementation of a district-wide visitor system (like Raptor) to ensure that only the appropriate adults are visiting our schools, with proper ID.
• General facilities safety and security improvements including electronic locks and/or deadbolts on certain doors, and other controls which will better protect students and staff at entryways and exits.
Act 44 of 2018 created a School Safety and Security Fund for the purposes of providing funding to school districts for school safety and security concerns and addressing community violence.
Among other things, the new law allows designated personnel to carry firearms in schools, and sets the training requirements for those who do, although the decision of whether to arm school personnel is left to individual school districts.
Grants also fund hard infrastructure improvements like security cameras or front door security improvements as well as programs designed to reduce school violence, such as counseling and traumainformed training and violence prevention training.
“Our children deserve to learn in an environment where they feel safe and secure, while also providing a safe space for them to speak to trained individuals about how to handle stressors in their lives,” state Sen. Katie Muth, D-44th Dist., said in a press release announcing the grants in her district
“Our teachers deserve to teach in a space where they, too, are safe and wellequipped with the tools they need,” she said.
Grants to schools in Muth’s district will help fund conflict resolution or dispute management, including restorative justice strategies; security planning and purchase of security-related technology; trauma-informed approaches to education; thorough, district-wide school safety, violence prevention, emergency preparedness and all-hazards plans, including revisions or updates to such plans and conducting; emergency preparedness drills and related activities with local emergency responders; the institution of student, staff and visitor identification systems, including criminal background check software; counseling services for students, and much more.
“As an author of two of Pennsylvania’s landmark student protection laws, I was proud to secure funding in the budget to help improve the safety of the schools in 130th District,” state Rep. David Maloney, R-130th Dist. said in a release announcing the grants in his district.
According to his office, the grants awarded to school districts in the 130th District will help fund emergency preparedness plans; implementing systems for the management of student discipline, including criminal offenses; coordinating drills and related activities with local emergency responders; and the purchase of security-related technology such as metal detectors, protective lighting, specialty trained canines, surveillance equipment, special emergency communications equipment, automated external defibrillators, electronic locksets, deadbolts, trauma kits and theft control devices.