By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph public schools will receive additional security upgrades, thanks to a $600,000 state grant.
Non-Academic Student Services Director Shannon Nolte says the money will be used to upgrade security measures at all of the buildings in the St. Joseph School District.
“That will actually, by our estimates, some of the assessments we’ve done, that will put extra security, extra measures at all of our buildings, every building in the school district, every elementary, middle, high; Webster, Hillyard, all the buildings in the school district will be able to have this upgrade,” Nolte tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
The district made school safety/security a priority during the successful campaign for the school levy increase in 2019.
The St. Joseph School District received the maximum amount for a district its size from the new Missouri Safety Grant Program administered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Grant funds must be spent by April of 2024.
Nolte says safety, sadly, has become a greater need for school districts.
“Unfortunately, in this day and age, with a lot of the things that have happened across the country, with the shootings and entrances into school buildings and businesses, other buildings as well, we feel like we have to make sure those threats are minimized as much as possible,” Nolte says.
Nolte says the first order of business is to secure school building entrances to keep intruders out or at least keep them at bay until police can arrive. He says internal communications need an upgrade and he would like to add at least three School Resources Officers. Nolte says the school district works closely with the St. Joseph Police Department as well as the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department.
Nolte says the district will use the grant to bolster security at every building in the district.
“This grant won’t cover every single area that’s needed,” Nolte says. “I mean, there may be some other areas that we determine after this grant is over that we still need to address and we will do that.”
The district reports that in the past four years secure entrances have been added to all elementary, middle, and high school buildings in the district. High resolution video surveillance systems have been installed along with phone and visitor management systems. Other safety measures taken include adding AEDs (automated external defibrillators), bleeding control kits, and emergency staff training.