Most local school districts will use money from an Indiana Department of Homeland Security school safety grant to bolster their school resource officer programs.
The awards, which are for fiscal year 2022, ranged from $24,000 to the $100,000 maximum in Johnson County, and required school districts with more than 1,000 students to match the amount of money they received dollar-for-dollar, according to the department of homeland security.
Center Grove, Greenwood, Clark-Pleasant, Franklin and Indian Creek schools all received grants. Edinburgh schools, which used previous school safety grants to fund a school resource officer, discontinued the program last year, and was the only school district in the county not on the grant awards list this year.
Center Grove schools, which received the maximum of $100,000, will spend its money on a crisis alert system for all school buildings in the district, although the district won’t share the details of those plans for security reasons.
Center Grove schools has received a school safety grant seven times, using it to pay school resource officer salaries in each year except last year, when it uses the grant to upgrade digital camera system servers, assistant superintendent Bill Long said in an email.
Schools were able to submit a number of requests for items that needed funding, but had to prioritize them, as only one request would be granted. School resource officers were the predominant priority for schools in spending safety grant money.
Greenwood schools will use its $52,000 grant award to pay for 60 hours of school resource officer hours a week throughout the school year, said Terry Terhune, superintendent.
Clark-Pleasant schools will also use its allotment for its school resource officer program. Clark-Pleasant schools formed its own police department in 2019 with money from a successful referendum after residents voted for a property tax hike. The $83,200 in school safety grant money will help supplement the wages of the school district’s five police officers, as have previous school safety grants. The school district’s goal is to eventually have eight officers, spokesperson Rick Hightower said in an email.
Franklin schools will use its $99,008 award to pay for the cost of one of two school resource officers employed by the district and part of the salary of one of the two officers the Franklin Police Department assigns to the schools, said Jeff Sewell, the school district’s operations director.
Indian Creek received $24,000 in grant funds, and will also use the money on its school resource officer program. The school district has just one officer on campus at any given time, using a rotation of officers who take turns roaming the schools, said Andrea Perry, assistant superintendent.
“It helps with overall safety on campus for students, staff and the community,” she said.
