Southern Colorado school districts reveal plans for security upgrades thanks to state grant
A Colorado grant is helping school districts make needed upgrades to security.
Several districts in the Pikes Peak Region received funding from the grant, including Woodland Park School District and Colorado Springs School District 11.
“I really don’t want to be that school district that has something tragic happen,” Sean Goings, the Safety and Security Coordinator for Woodland Park School District.
The School Security Disbursement Grant Program awarded Woodland Park School District $334,910 for upgrades. The money is helping every school in the district get a new security vestibule and a new system to check visitor I.D.s to better monitor who’s coming in.
“Limiting that access is going to be helpful because we don’t know when that door swings open, someone could be coming in with really good intentions, but whose right behind them that will catch that door and mean to do harm,” Goings said.
D-11 received $647,014 from the grant. The money is being spent to install security vestibules at Howbert, Monroe and Grant Elementary Schools. Matching funds are also helping the district upgrade the visitor management system district-wide as well. All upgrades will be complete and ready to use by the Fall of 2019.
While the three elementary schools are being remodeled, 10 others are still in need of new security entrances. Similar to Woodland Park High School, the D-11 schools were built in a time when school security wasn’t the issue it is today.
“We continue to look for these grants and apply for these grants as we can because our general funds just aren’t cutting it for those types of purposes,” Devra Ashby, Public Information Officer with D-11 said.
The new check-in system for Woodland Park is planned for this coming fall and will require every visitor to have an ID to enter a school. The new security vestibules will be installed in Woodland Park by the Fall of 2020.
Click here for a full list of districts which benefitted from the grant.
