Security: Maysville, East M updating video surveillance, entry door access
COLUMBUS — Another round of security grants from the state of Ohio will aid area schools in their safety endeavors on campus.
Four area districts were among more than 900 schools that received state funding for physical safety and security upgrades during the fourth round of the Ohio's K-12 School Safety Grant Program, which was announced by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine earlier this month.
Maysville Local was given $300,000 and will be split evenly between the high school, middle school and elementary, and East Muskingum Local received $275,108 and will share the funds between five buildings, New Concord and Perry elementaryies, Larry Miller Intermediate, East Muskingum Middle School and John Glenn High School.
Improving safety was one of Brian Blum's objectives when he became the Maysville superintendent. This grant allows the district to achieve that goal.
"This is very beneficial to get these grants so we can utilize them to improve the safety and security of our students and employees," Blum said. "Having this money earmarked for safety will help us improve on several things in every building."
Blum noted since he took over the job in the summer, the district has replaced several cameras and entry door access points. The money will be used to update the video surveillance and entry points of each building and to upgrade school-wide communication within each building and building to building.
Blum added the timeline to complete these projects is before the 2023-24 school year.
"We've been slowly replacing cameras and other things as they broke so this will allow us to move quicker in updating and upgrading everything," Blum said. "We can now use the money we had set aside for these projects to help with others we have planned."
This is the second time East Muskingum has received security grants, as they were part of the first round over the summer, noted Superintendent Dave Adams. He said the additional funding will allow them to implement uniform video surveillance systems, along with improving security at door entry points and building to building communications.
"Our old surveillance system had multiple logins, but now we will have the same system for all the district's buildings. It will be more uniform and have better capabilities to retrieve video," Adams said. "We'll be able to get the full safety package we were looking at originally. Our goal is to make our district safer and better for our children and faculty. We're grateful to receive these funds and look forward to putting these security measures in place."
New Lexington Schools will see $243,855 and will divvy the money between the high school, middle school and New Lexington and Junction City elementaries, while Foxfire High and Intermediate schools will get $100,000 apiece.
A fifth round of funding will be announced in the coming weeks, as a total of $112 million was allocated for the fourth and fifth rounds of the grant program by the Ohio General Assembly as part of House Bill 45.
To date, a total of $173 million has been awarded to 2,374 Ohio K-12 schools to help pay for physical security expenses such as new security cameras, public address systems, automatic door locks, visitor badging systems, and exterior lighting. Eligible schools could receive as much as $100,000 per building.
The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission is administering the program in partnership with the Ohio School Safety Center.
"When we created the K-12 School Safety Grant Program, we expected that the need for funding would far exceed the amount of money available, but I vowed to go back to the legislature and ask for more," said Gov. DeWine. "Now, with the generous support of the Ohio General Assembly, I'm proud to announce that every single qualifying school that applied for a grant will receive funding."
bhannahs@gannett.com; @brandonhannahs
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Security: Maysville, East M updating video surveillance, entry door access
