The Republic School District is one of 566 school districts, charter schools and nonpublic schools that received grant funds from the state of Missouri's School Safety Grant Program. Governor Mike Parson made the announcement about the second round of grant funding with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on October 2.
The Republic School District will receive $300,000, which is the maximum grant amount awarded.
"Our district's mission is to 'prepare each student for future excellence through a safe educational environment,'" said Dr. Matt Pearce, Superintendent. "The funding from this grant will allow us to add security measures in all of our buildings for our highly skilled School Police team to implement."
Money from the grant will be used for electronic door locks, door sensors and additional cameras.
"When students and staff feel safe at school, they can focus on learning," said Officer Scott Umbarger, Director of School Police. "The additional tools we'll receive through funding from the state will help us closely monitor every single door throughout our district, while creating more visibility in each school with more security cameras."
In the last year, the Republic School District has expanded its School Police team with an additional School Resource Officer and a School Safety Coordinator. In addition, the district has added a system for access control, surveillance and alerts in each school.
“Improving the safety and security of our schools is an issue we can all support, and these grants help ensure our schools remain safe environments for Missouri children to learn,” Governor Parson said.
Governor Mike Parson approved an additional $50 million to expand the School Safety Reimbursement Grant Program in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget. The grant program aims to support school safety improvements, including physical security upgrades and associated technology (e.g., door locks, monitoring systems), bleeding control kits, epinephrine auto-injectors, and automatic external defibrillators. This second round of funding was also available to nonpublic schools. An additional 169 school districts and charter schools received $20 million in funding during the first round of grants from the Fiscal Year 2023 budget.