The Yazoo Herald
County schools earn grant for school violence prevention
By Jamie Patterson
The Yazoo County School District is among seven districts within the state included in a recent three million dollar grant for school violence prevention.
"We are absolutely elated to say the least," said Assistant Superintendent Terri Rhea.
Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith recently announced seven school districts in Mississippi will share $3.0 million in School Violence Prevention Program grant funding. The local Yazoo County School District will receive $366,618 of those funds.
"These federal grants will help districts across Mississippi improve security and coordination with law enforcement," Wicker said. "I look forward to seeing these funds enacted and a safer future for our state's students."
School districts may use SVPP grants for, among other things, coordination with local law enforcement; security enhancements, emergency preparedness and technology upgrades, and/or other actions to improve security in schools and school grounds.
"Rising crime rates across the country affect everyone whether in urban, suburban, or rural areas," said Hyde-Smith. "As a result, local law enforcement, including those assigned to protect schools, face unrelenting pressures. These COPS grants are intended to help ease those burdens and promote safer communities."
Rhea said the county school district's overall project is to continue to fulfill one of the district's strategic goals.
"That is for the students to be able to have a safe environment and a positive culture where each of them can attend school without reason to worry if he or she is safe," Rhea said.
Some of the goals included in the district's grant proposal include:
Raptor Technologies -- Emergency Management System: Emergency preparation, response, and recovery -- This system will better allow for school personnel to be ready for any emergency, as well as be better prepared during drills. Each and every drill that takes place at the school sites can be managed, monitored, and tracked with Raptor Drill Manager, where reports can be downloaded and interpreted for performance to determine where improvements should be made. Also, the local district will have a mobile panic alert, called Raptor Alert, that goes straight to first responders and summons help quickly with simply the click of a button on a mobile phone. Finally, the district will implement Raptor Accountability, which can account for the location and status of everyone on the campus 24/7 and stays updated in real time for an accurate location of everyone.
Raptor Technologies -- Visitor Management System: This system allows the District to have full control of -- and a full line of sight of -- who enters each building. This system reduces the risk of danger as anyone who comes to any campus will submit a driver's license and/or photo ID, which is run through the national crime database and results, as well as reports, are received within minutes. Visitors and/or other types of workers (example: construction) are approved and given badges that are printed with his or her photo, time arrived, and destination. Again, reports are available for download to be analyzed and interpreted for improvements to the safety of county students and employees.
Blackboard -- Mass Communication Custom Branded App: This app will be specific to Yazoo County School District only and will give stakeholders access to news, calendars, social media, notifications, and vital school information. The district will have the ability to quickly create one message and publish it everywhere including text, voice, email, mobile app, website, and social media with the touch of a button. This app will integrate with the district's other communication tools to allow for more clarity and streamlined information. This app allows the school district to expand its communication strategy in that it will be utilized for crisis response, attendance updates, surveys, etc. As well, there will be an anonymous tip line where community members can send tips to the school regarding concerns, issues, scenarios, etc. Finally, again, a reporting system will be available for interpretation regarding how each school is engaging its stakeholders and where improvements should be made.
Maxpro Access Control Panels -- Access Control System Installments for five Locations: These access control panels can be managed remotely as well as on-site. This system allows for doors to be secured from one panel, manages employee access, and more than meets compliance requirements by allowing reports to be downloaded to be analyzed and interpreted for where improvements can be made in regard to accessing any and all of the doors on all of the campuses. This adds quite an additional layer of protection in terms of being able to access a building without entering through the designated area and going through the Raptor Visitor Management System.
"The aforementioned 21st century technologies are only a sampling of the focus of our project and the awarding of this federal grant," Rhea said. "As we move into the installation of all of these technologies, we are excited to provide updates on the process as it unfolds."