GREENSBORO, N.C. - It's been 55 days since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The shooting left 17 dead, and more than a dozen hurt. Over the past two months, there's been a wave of protests, debates, and demands for change - from nationwide rallies to school walkouts.
Tuesday night, Guilford County Schools laid out plans to keep students safe, with the unveiling of next year's school budget.
It’s a rigorous process that happens every year, but this year there’s a different emphasis on challenges the school system faces: recruiting good teachers, fixing underperforming schools, and keeping schools safe.
The proposed budget for the 2018-2019 school year is more than $733,000,000. Superintendent Dr. Sharon Contreras wants $5.4 million dollars of that to go to school security. Most of that money will go to properly securing external doors across the district, by using safety technology, alarms and buzzers.
“It is absolutely critical. You cannot foolproof a school, but you can certainly make them more secure to make it more difficult for somebody with bad intentions to get in,” said Dr. Contreras.
The rest of the safety funding would go to two things: first, a command center to help the more than a hundred GCS schools with risk management and safety in case of an emergency. Secondly, communication and alert software the district does not currently have.
“It helps us to track incidents in the school district, and maintain trend data but also to assist if there is a crisis, and a crisis is not always a man-made crisis - it could be a hurricane or a natural event but it is a way for make sure we have good communication protocols,” Dr. Contreras said.
Some people commented during the unveiling of the budget tonight. A few brought up safety concerns, especially on the topic of arming teachers. However, Dr. Contreras said the school board is adamantly against arming teachers.
There are several steps that come next in this process, but the public can weigh on the proposed budget at the next school board meeting on April 26th.
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