Minnesota School Districts Receive Funding to Increase Safety

ST. PAUL, Minn. — School safety is always a concern and has become an even larger issue over the last few years. Changes in design and operations are occurring throughout the country in order to increase security on campus, including recent updates for two school districts in Minnesota.
The Centennial School District in Anoka County, Minn., and District 197 in West St. Paul, Minn., recently passed referendums to put millions of dollars into structural security upgrades. The majority of schools in the area were built between the 1930s and 1970s, which is reflected in the design and layout of the buildings. As safety has become a focal point on campus, the Minnesota School Board Association saw that it was time to renovate schools in order to have the most up-to-date and effective system to keep schools safe from unwanted intruders. The money allocated in the referendum will be used to move the main office of each school to the front entrance of the school so staff can better monitor activity at the entry point of campus. Many schools now have the main office somewhere within the campus, which makes it difficult to monitor visitors effectively.
While these two districts are the first to receive money for the upgrades, the school board association’s director of communication Greg Abbott, said that even more schools will appear on the February ballot and will have a similar agenda.
The cost for taxpayers for upgrades to District 197 will be about $3 more a year added to property taxes, where the taxpayer increase was not available for Centennial School District. In Minnesota this year, more than $47 million in capital project levies will be certified for about 26 districts statewide.
Not all districts are looking to receive money for renovating their main offices, however, explained Abbott. Some districts are simply building new schools altogether in order to create a better design for safety and to update older facilities.