Micah Whitlow, director of the West Virginia Department of Education’s Office of School Facilities, and Jonah Adkins, director of WVDE’s Office of Safety & Tiered Support Systems, speak before the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability in Charleston on Sunday, November 10, 2024, W.Va. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography)
West Virginia’s financially struggling public schools cannot afford millions of dollars in security improvements, including secure front entry and weapon detection systems.
Schools need $258 million in state funding this school year to improve school safety, according to the state Education Department. Financial provinces contributions to schools – levies, taxes and more – do not cover the majority of needs.
The report shows that 272 schools still do not have secure access gates – known as mantraps – with two interlocking doors and a monitoring system.
Jonah Adkins, director of the Office of Safety Tier Support Systems for the West Virginia Department of Education, told lawmakers On Sunday, these costs are keeping schools from making safety upgrades.
“We don’t have any money to give,” he said.
This year, school threats have increased in West Virginia, prompting Governor Jim Justice to do so establish a school safety task force in September to allay concerns.
“We have people targeting children and schools to do bad things,” Adkins said.
Justice proposed $1 million last month for financing school safety but noted that the money “wouldn’t go far enough.” Lawmakers have given schools hundreds of millions of dollars from the state budget for school safety.
Several Republicans said they did not understand why safety improvements such as mantraps still had not been completed.
“I imagine most of us think this is the priority of our schools… why haven’t we addressed this if we have these needs? Is this just a priority issue?” Del asked. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, chairman of the House Education Committee.
WVDE leaders said state funds were not enough to cover school district safety improvements were struggling financially. The loss of student populations and children dropping out of public schools for the state’s education savings program have continued to fund the misery.
Some security measures are required by state code.
“The overall cost is quite prohibitive for some provinces,” he says Micah Whitlow, director of WVDE’s Office of School Facilities.
In response, Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha: “If these counties can’t afford it, then they don’t have it, right? So it is actually up to us as the legislature to provide for that.”
Adkins said there were a few grants available that counties could use for safety improvements. “They are very limited in the scope of what those funds can be used for,” he said.
He told lawmakers that the state should prioritize creating safe entryways in every school, which he estimated would cost about $87 million.
Schools also requested: $32 million for window and door security upgrades; $32 million for security cameras; and $25 million for weapons detection systems.
Schools also need $30 million for this prevention and resource officers as some schools continue to share one officer.
Additionally, WVDE noted that 177 schools still required additional emergency access roads and currently only had one road in and out of the school. There was no known price tag.
“… The needs are great… I propose that we work together to prioritize these needs,” Adkins told lawmakers. “We know we will never be able to do this all at once, but if we can improve a little each year, I think we can make good progress.”
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