Jackson School District awarded school safety grant

JACKSON, Mo. (KFVS) - Hundreds of schools across Missouri will soon be safer thanks to the state’s school safety grant program, and Jackson R-II Schools will be one of the districts benefiting from the grant.

The district received a $300,000 grant through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“We are constantly looking for ways to improve safety at all our campuses,” said Assistant Superintendent Keenan Kinder.

“Part of the process was that you told what you were going to use the money for, but there was another thing that looked at all the buildings age. All of our buildings come out to be 47.1 years old, I know that is kind of surprising to people,” he added.

Kinder said some of the older buildings in the district are due for some safety upgrades.

“We’ve got one building that was built in 1939 and, you know, the technology and the safety measures are different in 1939 than they are today,” he said.

The grant will allow the district to increase building entrance security.

“We are gonna go from access to control to more safer measures on our entrances,” said Kinder.

“It was funding that we didn’t necessarily have available to us,” he continued. “We can improve our camera systems, our buzzer systems. We are going to make more holding tanks or air locks. The more time that we can take to look at our visitors when they come in and to slow down any kind of threat will make our students and our staff safer.”

Kinder said he hopes added security can ease these students minds.

“We want everybody to feel safe and welcome in our school and environment,” he said.

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