GISD to receive two state safety grants

Graham ISD Superintendent Sonny Cruse last week announced the district will receive two grants from the state related to school safety. The district will receive $7,619 from the 2022-2024 Silent Panic Alert Technology Grant and $200,000 from the 2023-2025 School Safety Standards Formula Grant.

In June, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott charged Commissioner of Education Mike Morath with the development of a rule to ensure state school facilities were held to a heightened safety standard as well as determine the costs associated with having more secure facilities. Abbott announced in October that $400 million would be transferred to assist school districts in replacing or upgrading doors, windows, fencing, communications and other safety measures.

The new school safety standards rule will require all school system instructional facilities to have access points that are secured, maintained to operate as intended and are monitored. With the new rule came formula-based grant opportunities for schools which were the 2022-2024 Silent Panic Alert Technology Grant and the 2023-2025 School Safety Standards Formula Grant.

“The district is going to get two formula-based safety grants,” Cruse said. “One’s called the Silent Panic Alert Technology, or SPAT grant. That’s for $7,619, and that will be used basically to reimburse for what we’ve already paid for on our Securitybrix app.”

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Dec. 21 edition of The Graham Leader.