The Tyrone Area School Board recently approved the purchase of security cameras for the middle school as part of an application for the 2004-05 Safe School grant application.
The move was made to help further reduce vandalism, acts of violence and other student misbehaviors. About $3,500 is being set aside for the purchase out of an approximately $39,000 grant. According to information presented at the most recent school board meeting, the district would be responsible for the maintenance costs for the security cameras following the grant period which ends on June 30, 2005.
Grant administrator Sam Dean explained the cameras are just one way the Safe School grant money is used.
“Last year, we implemented several new violence prevention programs at the middle school,” said Dean.
He was referring to a similar grant for $39,399 which the district received for the 2003-04 school year. It provided major funding for the school’s resource officer program.
It was also used for the new programs at the middle school. One benefit of the Safe Schools program is to provide assistance for the sixth graders who are making the transition from elementary school.
Program expansions from the elementary school include the Olweus Bullying Prevention program, the Life Skills program and the PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) program.
Grant proceeds were also allocated for the acquisition of new program materials and training for the Natural Helpers peer-helping and the Parents Who Care education program.
“The grant money was used to introduce the new programs, to pay staff and to pay part-time guidance counselors,” Dean told The Daily Herald.
Dean explained the new grant money has been applied for, but it has not been approved.
“That is a very competitive grant and we have absolutely no assurance of getting that money,” said Dean. “We can not spend a penny of it until we are approved.”
The state grant money comes from the Department of Education’s Safe Schools division.
The amount of the 2004-05 grant application is $39,000. Dean explained the district is planning on using some of the grant money, if approved, to build upon the programs which have been implemented.
“We are hopeful the grant readers will look upon us with favor again,” said Dean.
He explained Tyrone Area was the only district in the county to receive the grant money last year.
