By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The USD 431 Hoisington school board held its monthly meeting last Monday. In light of the spate of recent shootings around the nation, including the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left 21 dead, Superintendent Patrick Crowdis announced the district will again be applying for the Safe and Secure Grant. The grant would match state funding on a dollar-to-dollar basis with local funds to help enhance school security.
"They have three primary focuses: doors, cameras, and SROs, or officers," Crowdis said. "We are primarily taking a look at going ahead and adding card readers to the Activity Center. All of the other buildings already have card readers. We have already started the infrastructure to put in cameras to the Activity Center. We will be looking at trying to get funding to help with finishing out the cameras at the Activity Center, as well as upgrading all of our memory and software on the usage of the cameras."
Crowdis also told board members of an upcoming meeting with local and county law enforcement to discuss the district's emergency plan.
"I believe on Wednesday I should be sitting down with them to actually start that process," he said. "It's been at least 10 years since the local law enforcement has received an updated emergency plan."
Crowdis plans to present an updated emergency plan to the council for approval at the July meeting.