Pennsylvania State Sen. Lisa Boscola announced a total of $130,902 in state grants to improve safety and security in area schools earlier this month under the Safe Schools Initiative Targeted Grant.
According to the Pennsylvania State Senate, the grants were awarded to several local school districts, including the Bethlehem and Easton districts, and a charter public school in the area to improve school safety through equipment and safety programs.
Kurt Derr, a legislative assistant in State Sen. Lisa Boscola’s office, said safety has been a prioritized issue for the Senate and state. A new act passed earlier this year, Act 44, deals with the safety inside and outside of schools.
Act 44 was signed by Gov. Tom Wolf, which added a School Safety and Security Committee within the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
“A hope with this grant is that it can be done annually based on the funding within the state budget,” Derr said.
The money for these grants came from the general fund budget. Derr said as long as there is funding available, the program will continue.
The Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, a tuition-free public charter school located on East Third Street, received $12,230 for a violence prevention program. The school’s goal is to establish a solid team that is available for students when they are feeling frustrated or feel that they need to be heard.
Diane LaBelle, the executive director and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, said the safety of students ultimately comes down to their mental health and ensuring a support system that is available and effective.
“We already have a PA system and walkie-talkies in terms of all school communication,” LaBelle said. “We also are installing cameras so that we can monitor areas that may not be as easy to monitor.”
LaBelle hopes this program will allow students and faculty to communicate in a way that is supportive of the school environment.
“We hope that we can be a model for other schools,” LaBelle said.
Other schools, such as the Bethlehem Area School District, were awarded money for equipment. With $24,984, the district will spend the most money on walkie-talkies for all of its schools to ensure better in-school communication during emergencies.
Jodi Frankelli, the supervisor of Early Learning, Grants and Development for Bethlehem Area School District, said the district’s goal through the application process was to show the state its larger plan for school safety. Beyond the walkie-talkies, Frankelli said Bethlehem’s goal is to also improve communication between the different schools in the district.
“We want the community to know that we take safety very seriously within all of our schools,” Frankelli said. “Every parent wants to know that they are sending their child to a safe and secure environment.”
In addition to the Safe Schools Initiative Targeted Grant funding, a new safety and security grant program is being introduced to school districts within Pennsylvania through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
Through this grant funding, $60 million will be distributed among schools to promote school safety.
“It is important that we focus on school safety especially with all of the unfortunate events that have occurred recently within the United States,” Derr said.
Comment policy
Comments posted to The Brown and White website are reviewed by a moderator before being approved. Incendiary speech or harassing language, including comments targeted at individuals, may be deemed unacceptable and not published. Spam and other soliciting will also be declined.
The Brown and White also reserves the right to not publish entirely anonymous comments.