Seneca County school districts awarded nearly $1 million in state safety grants

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced $68 million in grants for 945 schools in the state as part of the latest round of Ohio’s K-12 School Safety Grant Program. Five school districts in Seneca County were among those awarded funding.

Calvert Catholic Schools is to receive $95,000, Hopewell-Loudon Local is to receive $50,000, New Riegel Local is to receive $174,342 and Seneca East Local is to receive $150,000. Tiffin City Schools was awarded the largest grant amount at $500,000, according to a press release from the governor’s office.

The grants will help pay for physical security expenses, such as new security cameras, public address systems, automatic door locks, visitor badging systems, and exterior lighting. The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission is administering the program in partnership with the Ohio School Safety Center.

As part of his executive budget proposal, Governor DeWine is also requesting funding to help schools with the cost of staffing a school resource officer, according to the release.

A total of $112 million was allocated for the fourth and fifth rounds of the grant program by the Ohio General Assembly. To date, a total of $173 million has been awarded to 2,374 Ohio K-12 schools to help pay for physical security expenses, according to the release.

“Now, with the generous support of the Ohio General Assembly, I’m proud to announce that every single qualifying school that applied for a grant will receive funding,” DeWine said in the release.

The fifth round of funding will be announced in the coming weeks.