The board agreed to match a state grant to fully fund a school resource officer at Belmont Elementary.
According to information contained in the board agenda packet the grant was due to the “hard work and diligence” of Executive Director of Student Support Services Tom Davis and the school system’s resource officers.
This grant provides a total of $66,667 to the district. Half of these funds will be used to continue to pay part of Jeff Hinton's salary.
In the past, the district has covered the rest of his salary locally. The other half of this grant will be used to hire a new SRO at Belmont Elementary.
The total local cost will be $59,562 and will be allocated evenly between Hinton and the new hire.
Belmont and Manning have been sharing one officer over the past few years, school system spokesman Les Atkins said in a statement.
The school system will be posting the new SRO job this week, he said this evening.
Meanwhile, the board also approved an agreement with Charlotte-based Punch Technology to provide teachers and staff with an emergency alert system.
Every teacher will have the ability to alert local law enforcement and first responders in the event of an emergency from their smartphone or classroom laptop.
Responders then have the ability to release that emergency information to others in the emergency services community when appropriate.
Punch Alert has been used by districts across the country for several years.
It uses GPS technology to provide first responders with exact location of the report and actively monitors the location of all faculty and staff until the emergency is resolved.
Staff will also use the system to alert administrators inside the building for matters that may require additional assistance but not require emergency responders.
“As a parent myself I know how important it is to know that your child’s district is doing everything possible to create and maintain a safe environment,” Superintendent Dain Butler said. “This system was created with that concern in mind which I believe adds another level of security and safety to what we already have in place on our campuses.”
