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Security at Austintown schools gets US attention
Grant chief applauds district’s use of funds
By Elise Franco
Austintown
The township’s school district, paired with the police department, is one of nine in the country chosen for an evaluation of the planning and implementation of a federal security grant.
The Austintown Police Department worked with the district to get a $58,000 grant in 2006 through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).
The money was used to install new security equipment in the schools, said Laura Nickles, grant program coordinator for Circle Solutions Inc., in Virginia.
She said the district had to match that amount, bringing the total to about $116,000.
The money was used to install 24 new security cameras in Austintown Fitch High School, in addition to the 24 cameras already on campus; install access controls to main entrances for all elementary schools, Frank Ohl Intermediate and Austintown Middle School; and provide in-cruiser laptops to the township police officers who patrol school grounds, allowing them to view live security footage for any building from inside their car.
Vince Colaluca, district superintendent, said having such security measures has significantly decreased theft and violence at the high school.
“Kids know, now no matter where they are, we’ll pick up on it,” he said.
In the past eight years, the COPS grant program, Secure Our Schools, has funded 900 grants to police agencies and school districts, Nickles said.
In order to better grasp how this grant money has been used over the years, nine previous recipient communities were chosen to participate in an overall evaluation of the SOS program, she said.
“There’s never been a national evaluation of this program,” Nickles said. “It’s really a testament to [Austintown] that you’ve been selected. It’s the strength of your program that’s warranted more study.”
Nickles sat down Wednesday with the group of people who were vital in securing the grant, including Colaluca; Barb Kleiner; former district treasurer; Ray Holmes, Austintown detective; Doug McGlynn, Austintown Fitch High School principal; and Tom Ventresco, district technology coordinator.
Ventresco said the new security system, which forces visitors to be buzzed in, allows for less access for outsiders and more control for administrators and police.
“You can tell someone to report to the office, but they can say, ‘Well, make me,’” he said. “We changed entrances to force visitors to walk past the office before they even get to any children or classrooms.”
Holmes said, if necessary, even the police dispatchers are able to tap into the live security footage.
“You can have the dispatcher telling the officer exactly where on the campus to go using the laptop-camera system,” he said. “That’s tremendous from the police side of it.”
McGlynn said in the three years since the new equipment was implemented, the district has become safer.
“We’ve made the kids feel more secure,” he said. “It’s a safer environment because we can always see what’s going on.”
Nickles said Austintown seems to be an example of how to use SOS grant funds successfully.
“Primarily, the collaboration within the community seems very strong,” she said. “It has a lot to do with the success of the program here.”