Lee County Schools get $700K from two grants
The School Safety Grant Program totals $225,000 to improve school safety across the district. This is the second straight year the district has received this grant, according to a release, with last year's grant of $300,000 bringing the total funds awarded to LCS in the School Safety Grant Program to $525,000.
The district also received $484,000 for a two-year School Resource Officer grant. These funds are designated to help offset the cost of placing school resource officers on each campus in the system. The district employs 18 school resource officers across 17 campuses utilizing the Lee County Sheriff's Office.
Last year, LCS used School Safety Grant funds to purchase additional metal detectors and other safety equipment for Lee County and Southern Lee high schools.
In addition, all schools received new radios to improve staff communication related to security and several school campuses received funds to implement perimeter fencing. The grant also helped provide additional safety personnel for after-school events on campuses.
'This year's grant gives us another opportunity to tackle some challenges that may have been a year or two away from getting fully funded had we only had our regular allotments of state and local funds to work with,' said David Blackmon, the district's safety and security coordinator.
Grant funds for this year will be utilized in three areas: safety equipment, services for students in crisis and school safety training.
Safety equipment updates will be concentrated on camera equipment upgrades and additional badge reader access points.
The district plans to use funds designated for services to students in crisis to provide mental health and behavioral support. Funds designated for school safety training will be targeted toward providing best practice learning opportunities for school and district staff.
Since 2018, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has worked with the General Assembly to improve safety in public schools by providing grants for school resource officers, services for students in crisis, training to increase school safety, providing safety equipment in schools and additional school mental health support personnel.
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