More Stark County schools get safety grant funding. Here are four things to know
More state grant money is coming to Stark County schools to help update their security equipment and install more safety features.
Thirty-five public and private Stark County schools will receive a collective $2.3 million as part of the latest round of Ohio’s K-12 School Safety Grant Program. This is the fourth round of funding through the state, which aims to support physical security expenses such as new security cameras, public address systems, automatic door locks, visitor badging systems and exterior lighting.
Previous safety grant funding:18 Stark schools get state safety grant funding
Previous safety grant funding:1,183 Ohio schools got safety grant funding; see if your Stark school is on the list
Here are four things to know about the state safety grants:
1. About half of all Ohio public and private schools have received a safety grant so far.
Roughly $173 million has been awarded to 2,374 Ohio schools supporting students from kindergarten to grade 12, including traditional public schools, public charter schools, private schools and parochial schools. The state has disbursed the funding through four rounds.
The first rounds, totaling $105 million, were funded by Ohio’s operating budget and the American Rescue Plan Act. Ohio lawmakers approved an additional $112 million for the grant program in January.
In the fourth round of funding, which the state announced last month, 945 schools received a combined $68 million in grants. Another $40 million is expected to be awarded through a fifth round of funding that has yet to be announced.
2. Stark County has received the ninth-highest amount of safety grant money among all Ohio counties.
Sixty-three Stark County public and private schools have received a collective $4.69 million in safety grants through the first four rounds of funding. The fourth round was the largest allocation for Stark County so far.
Among Stark County school districts, Plain Local’s nine schools collectively received the most funding with $608,274. Jackson Local’s $600,000 allotment -- $100,000 for each of its six school buildings – followed. Both received their allocations in the fourth round.
Of the 63 Stark County schools that have received funding, 25 of them (40%) have been allocated $100,000, which is the highest amount possible.
Safety grants for Stark area school districts
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3. The grant money will be used to improve communication, door security and to buy more cameras.
Jackson Local spokesperson Todd Porter said the majority of the $600,000 the district received will be used to enhance technology related to door security and camera technology. He declined to provide further specifics due to safety concerns.
Plain Local spokesperson Mary Beddell, also citing safety concerns, declined to specify how Plain plans to use the $608,274 at the district’s nine buildings.
North Canton Business Director Todd Henne said the district plans to use its $249,087 allocation to buy five handheld Motorola radios to improve communication, additional security cameras at Hoover High School and the North Canton Middle School, the Transfinder Bus Routing Software and computer tablets that will be mounted on each school bus that will allow parents to track the location of their child’s school bus to reduce the time students spent at school bus stops. While the security cameras will be installed in April, the radios, bus routing software and tablet installation will not be ready until next school year, Henne said.
4. Not all local schools have received funding.
In Stark County, none of the schools in the Alliance, Canton City and Lake Local school districts have received a safety grant.
Jason Dixon, assistant superintendent for the Canton City School District, said Canton has applied twice for the safety grant and still is awaiting to hear whether its latest request will be funded.
Alliance spokesperson Cheyanne Gonzalez said Alliance submitted a grant proposal but didn’t receive funding. She said the district is actively applying for four of the 12 safety grants available to districts. She said Alliance is ineligible for some of the grants due to previous funding awards.
Lake district officials did not return a message seeking information on whether the district had applied for the safety grant.
Reach Kelli at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com.
On Twitter: @kweirREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stark schools get $2.3M from Ohio's K-12 School Safety Grant Program
