Belchertown, Ludlow receive school safety grants

Date: 8/9/2023

Belchertown and Ludlow public schools were awarded grant funds through the Safer Schools and Communities Initiative.

The Office of Grants and Research, in partnership with the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, made available $2.9 million for school districts, educational collaboratives and charter schools to apply for one-time funding to enhance security for the safety of students and staff.

Ludlow Public Schools was awarded a safety and security grant in the amount of $144,400.79 split between Ludlow High School, Paul R. Baird Middle School and East Street Elementary School.

Ludlow Superintendent Frank Tiano said that Information Communication Technology Director Mike Assaf applied for the grant.

Tiano added, “That is the highest [grant amount] just looking at a group of other districts within the Pioneer Valley. What this grant does is it will supplement the money that was allotted to us from the Capital Committee in terms of providing safety measures at our three schools behind Harris Brook. It will have the same entry system and so forth, cameras, IDs.”

The funds will facilitate physical security enhancements and help ensure the safety of student and educators.

Not only will it allow staff cards to all be on the same access points across the building, it will help with the collaboration with law enforcement.

“This helps us number one for staff traveling between the district but also two, to help our law enforcement. We have been working collaboratively as we always do with the police and the fire and so they have primary and secondary access to our buildings as needed.”

The parameters are that school districts could apply up to $50,000 per school and not to exceed $150,000.

Tiano added that the recent opening of Harris Brook Elementary provided a good opportunity to compare the security and safety measures in place there to those in the three older buildings.

The review and comparison enabled them to clearly identify the needs within our three older schools and devise a plan to make all our buildings secure and safe by standardizing equipment and technology across the district.

“What this does is this actually adds to that plan and speeds up our timeline. We had a plan for three years and by being awarded this money, this puts us a year ahead of where we thought we would be,” Tiano added.

Assaf said that this grant must be implemented within the upcoming school year since it is a one year grant.

The work should be starting soon, according to Tiano and Assaf.

Tiano said, “I am grateful to Assaf and his team and already has orders and working with the same vendors that we developed relationships with to be able to put this in place.”

Belchertown was also awarded $100,000 but had no further comments on the grants.