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Two Southern Colorado school districts receive a grant to update safety measures

KRDO

PUEBLO, Colo.(KRDO)-- According to the Colorado Divison of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM), Pueblo School District 70 and Widefield School District 3 received the school access for emergency response (SAFER) grant.

According to the DHSEM, The SAFER grant, enacted by SB18-158, provides funding for interoperable communication hardware, software, and equipment maintenance. The grant also works to create better connections between existing school and first responder communications systems.

Aaron Hoffman, the executive director of secondary student services for student learning at the Widefield School District, said this is not the first time they applied for the program, but this is the first year they received the grant. He said they were awarded around $1.13 million to update safety measures.

"So this year, I worked really closely with the Colorado Divison of Homeland Security, and I worked very closely with the representative from Motorola who are the ones that we are getting the radios from. We re-wrote the grant and included some additional information, and we were fortunate enough to get the grant this year," said Aaron Hoffman.

Every school will have two Motorolla radios on a trained staff member.

Widefield School District's Saftey and Security Director Chad Haynes

"All 18 school buildings are going to get all the infrastructure, the tech towers, the hardware, the software, the radios, and again it's going to be cool to directly communicate with first responders in emergency situations," said Aaron Hoffman.

He explained the district is in the process of working with school safe technicians.

"They're going to come out and walk all 18 of the sites that are going to get the radios. That is going to get the technology, and essentially, they're going to take a look and see if we have the appropriate power requirements, if we have appropriate radio signals, if we have the appropriate networking signals and if we need additional radio towers on our roofs and things of that nature. They will come through and look. We will get the actual tech towers and the hardware that will be installed in every building," said Aaron Hoffman.

Hoffman told KRDO that D3 already has a great security team, and applying for the grant wasn't in response to an issue. Instead, he explains this would add additional support to keep students and staff safe.

"It's something we tried for a couple of years, recognizing an additional layer of support. We have never been able to communicate. We have called 911 for certain situations, and again it's not just violence or things of that nature. It's any kind of medical emergency or fire if we have the smell of gas in the building or whatever the case is, and this will give us an opportunity and add another layer of safety and security for us in our building," said Aaron Hoffman

In the past, if they did call 911, Hoffman said they would have to go through the 911 operator to speak with first responders. With the grant, however, they'll be in direct communication with them in emergency situations. He said this will make responses to emergencies faster and more effective.

"If there is a student having a seizure in the gym were able to talk through as the fire team, and medical team is arriving. Were able to tell them, hey we need you to come around the back of the building were going to open this gate," said Aaron Hoofman.

According to Pueblo District's 70 Public Information Officer Lynnette Bonfiglio, Pueblo School District 70 received a little under $1.1 million to update the safety measures that are already in place. Bonfiglio said this is the district's first application for the grant.

"This certainly enriches our safety protocols. District 70 has been committed to interoperable communications since a partnership was developed with the school safe system in 2008, and that's a way to create communication with community and emergency resources," saidLynnette Bonfiglio.

She said 16 out of 22 schools in the district have some version of the new communication system.

"So what this latest grant will do is help us enrich what's already in place and to upgrade their infrastructure for the communication system," said Lynnette Bonfiglio.

According to Bonfiglio, this is a new, robust multichannel system.

"It's linked with school safety, and it's an interoperable communication system that bridges three different communication systems to gather for one concise system. So that's for in-school use, on school campuses and wide area coverage for the district and connects region-wide to the 911 system," said Lynnette Bonfiglio.

Currently, she explained that the amount of radios in each school depends on the site.

Now, Bonfiglio said the district's goal is to reapply for the SAFER grant in 2023 and ensure all schools have the communication software, infrastructure, and radios.

"We're very interconnected in District 70. So what this really does is bring us current. We kinda had to press pause on a lot of developmental strategies during the pandemic, so now that that is a little bit behind us and now that we're thinking more about getting people back. We're very excited to have this system in place too and have people be trained coming out of this pandemic. It's a fresh look at safety," said Lynnette Bonfiglio.

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Barbara Fox

Barbara is a reporter based out of Pueblo for KRDO NewsChannel 13. Learn more about her here.

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