GISD seeking School Safety and Security Grant funds

In the 86th Legislative Session, $100 million was appropriated to the Texas Education Agency to provide funding to public schools in the form of a School Safety and Security Grant. Graham ISD Superintendent Sonny Cruse announced Wednesday during a regular school board meeting the district will be eligible for $38,446.

During the board meeting Wednesday, Cruse said the amount of funding was based on a number of criteria.

“That ($100 million) is a lot of money, but when you spread it around the state to every district it is not a lot of money and you are slotted based on size of district, demographics, those sort of things,” he said.
Cruse said he had already submitted the grant application for the district and said it narrowed down how the funding could be spent.

“It is real limited in what those funds can be used for, so looking at the things it can be used for and looking at our needs that we have identified through safety and security, we are going to use our allotted fund to put in additional fencing at the district level,” he said.

Cruse said the district will replace the low fence around the back side of Crestview Elementary School to make it a non-entry area. A fence will also be constructed at the Woodland Elementary School field which will tie into the gym area at the campus, so people walking around will not be able to reach where children are on the campus, Cruse said.

“We will do a little additional fencing over there at Crestview between the gym and the building right there in the back. We are going to kind of drop off to secure that area and a small amount, like $4,000 of it, will be applied to the fence around the greenhouse to help offset that,” Cruse said.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Dec. 25 edition of The Graham Leader.