Des Moines Public Schools seeks to nearly double security budget after student shootings

Faced with multiple student shooting deaths in the past year, Des Moines Public Schools' officials are proposing to almost double the district’s security budget.

The increased spending would pay for placing metal detectors in middle and high schools, hiring additional public safety patrol officers and adding middle school monitors, they said during the Des Moines School Board’s Tuesday meeting.

If approved, districtwide spending on school safety would rise from $6.73 million for the current school year to $13.26 million next year. The potential increase comes at a time when district officials are looking to cut $10.2 million from the 2023-24 school year budget due, in part, to declining enrollment.

"Our districtwide safety team has been researching weapons detection systems and what's out there and what that might look like for us as a community and as a school district," interim Superintendent Matt Smith said during the meeting.

Tuesday's meeting was part of an ongoing discussion about the district's finances, and officials cautioned the proposals could change before a final budget is presented.

Discussion on whether the district should install metal detectors has come up at several community meetings, Smith said.

The school safety discussion came on the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of Jose Lopez-Perez, 15, outside of East High School in Des Moines on March 7, 2022. Also injured were East High School students Kemery Ortega, then 18, and Jessica Lopez, then 16.The district community suffered a separate — but similar — tragedy Jan. 23 when a shooting at Starts Right Here in Des Moines left alternative education students Rashad Carr, 16, and Gionni Dameron, 18, dead and the program’s founder, Will Holmes, hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Officials are also looking at ways to better help students and staff communicate and build connections.

"We can buy stuff all day long, but things don't change behaviors," said Dave Berger, Des Moines schools' executive director of operations, in an interview before the meeting.

More:Des Moines Public Schools may close buildings, cut staff to balance future budgets

No one way to address mental health crisis, gun violence, officials say

The district is taking a "holistic" approach to school security by ensuring buildings are safe, and students and staff have their needs addressed, Smith said after the meeting.

The proposed $13.26 million for security includes $5.85 million for materials including metal detectors, safety equipment and patrol vehicles.

Officials are working with school safety consultants and national experts to research the district's options for metal detectors.

Officials are willing to travel around the state to see weapons-detection systems already in use, Smith said in an interview Wednesday. Officials will also seek public input.

"We're going to continue to learn about these potential investments before a decision is made," he said.

The Des Moines Education Association, the district's teacher's union, plans to survey teachers about their thoughts on school security before it takes a stance on the weapons-detection systems, said DMEA President Josh Brown.

The goal is to find out "what kind of safety measures would they like to see us be pushing for as a union," Brown said. "And one of those that's going to be on that survey are the weapon-detection systems."

About $5.84 million is slated to be used for four public safety patrol officers, another dispatcher to work in the district’s dispatch center and 10 middle school campus monitors. About $333,000 would be spent on professional learning including perimeter awareness training for the staff.

The public safety patrol officers are Des Moines schools' employees and not police officers, Berger said. Some of the officers or "liaisons" are retired police and firefighters.

There have been no board discussions about bringing back school resources officers since the district ended its agreement with the Des Moines Police Department in 2021, board Chair Teree Caldwell-Johnson said after Tuesday's meeting.

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Social-emotional learning part of equation to stem violence, DMPS officials say

The proposed budget also addresses the need to focus on social-emotional learning or SEL lessons for students and staff. The lessons are designed to help students build life skills, regulate behavior and learn how to problem-solve.

Social-emotional learning has come under fire in Iowa in recent months over the fear the lessons are being used to indoctrinate students. Lawmakers introduced a bill this legislative session that would have prohibited the Iowa Department of Education from distributing information about the practice.

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DMPS officials would like to increase the budget for social-emotional learning from roughly $333,000 to $600,000. This includes $90,000 for materials including a social-emotional learning curriculum and $270,000 for summer programming and staff.

"I don't know that there's a single way to address the mental health crisis and gun violence through a single methodology," Smith said after the meeting. "I think you have to have a holistic approach to this, which is what this budget is meant to represent."

Additionally, the administration would like to boost cybersecurity funding from just under $1 million to $3.61 million for the next school year because of the recent ransomware attack.

"Cybersecurity is not something that we had been historically investing in," said Shashank Aurora, Des Moines schools' chief financial officer, after the meeting.

The funding would help cover the cost of an in-house cybersecurity team, the district's wireless infrastructure and cyber insurance.

Where the money would come from

About $3 million in federal COVID relief funds could be used to cover some of the cybersecurity and building security costs, Aurora said.

Related:Kim Reynolds announces $100 million to prevent school shootings in Iowa

The money will come from $100 million in American Rescue Plan and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds Gov. Kim Reynolds earmarked in June of 2022 to help districts improve building security.

Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @svhernandez or Facebook at facebook.com/svhernandezreporter.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines Public Schools to ask for funding boost over school safety