The state school board wants the Kansas Legislature to restore a program intended to improve school security with better locks, security cameras and door barricades.
It was among about $20 million in budget enhancement requests that the board approved, including money for board pay raises, the mentor teacher program and professional educator development.
The board this week agreed to ask lawmakers to approve $15 million to fully fund a program that had been flooded with requests from school districts over the years.
The Legislature had started funding the program at about $5 million in the aftermath of a 2018 shooting that killed 17 people at a Florida high school.
However, the Legislature stopped funding the grants last session and allocated $10 million instead for another initiative to equip public buildings with surveillance cameras with artificial intelligence that can locate people carrying guns.
The $10 million, which can be forwarded into future years, went to the attorney general’s office, which is overseeing the implementation of the gun surveillance program.
In the past, the State Department of Education received far more applications than it could fund with money allocated for the grants.
For instance in 2023, the state received proposals from 188 districts totaling about $14.4 million for the program.
The money that year could only be used for security infrastructure, security technology, communications for security, new school resource officers and Narcan kits that could be used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
The grants had a dollar-for-dollar match requirement.
Education Commissioner Randy Watson cautioned the board about the potential threats facing schools.
He pointed to the fatal shooting of a principal at Goddard Junior High School in 1985 and the 2022 shooting that occurred at Olathe East High School.
He said the Olathe shooting could have been worse if not for the “heroic actions” of the principal and the school resource officer.
Deputy Education Commissioner Frank Harwood said that over the years, total requests for the grants ranged from $10 million to $15 million.
Harwood noted that the money might be difficult to get because the funds for school safety grants are being spent elsewhere.
He said the department had asked for the $15 million in the past, but it hadn’t been approved. Seeking just $5 million, he said, would reinstate the program.
“If the board wants to support districts and the infrastructure for safe and secure schools my recommendation would be the $5 million,” Harwood said.
“I think this would be a way to support school districts in their quest to make school buildings as safe as possible,” Harwood said.
