The Pocahontas County School District recently announced it was awarded a $408,631 grant from the 2024 COPS Office School Violence Prevention Program. This funding will be used to enhance security measures and safeguard the well-being of students and staff at all county schools.
The COPS Office received more than 1,000 applications and awarded 203 nationwide, with a total of $73,022,696 going toward safety and security.
Pocahontas County Schools will use the grant for various security improvements including new access controls for the entries at all schools, rekeying all doors in the schools and upgrades to camera systems.
“We are incredibly grateful to receive this generous grant from the COPS School Violence Prevention Program,” superintendent Lynne Bostic said. “This funding will allow us to significantly enhance the security measures across all our schools, creating a safer environment for our students and staff.”
The school system has an additional local match of $136,210 that will be added to the grant to achieve the upgrades needed.
“We will be able to implement crucial steps in our ongoing commitment to school safety and violence prevention,” Bostic said. “We thank the COPS office for its continued support an investment in the safety of our schools.”
Director of school safety Duane Gibson explained that there is a three-tier plan for implementing the grant funding.
“First, our access controls for exterior doors are outdated and need to be replaced,” he said. “Addition- ally, we are also using multiple vendors for this service across our schools, making continuity in best practices very difficult. We will now have one access control vendor for all schools in the county.
“Second, we will re-key all interior and exterior door locks at all schools with ADA-compliant hardware to enhance security, ensuring that only the appropriate staff have access to our secure areas and classrooms,” he continued. “Doors are gateways to our classrooms and secure locks are essential for the protection of staff and students.
“Lastly, we will update our security cameras,” he added. “Video surveillance technology changes quickly and we want to make sure our schools are using current equipment for this vital tool. Just like the access control system, we are using multiple camera vendors, and this grant will allow us to use one vendor, providing equipment consistency throughout our schools.”
