McAllen ISD’s administration informed its board earlier this month that the district is pursuing two more safety grants through the Texas Education Agency, although there’s some board concern that those grants won’t be enough to cover safety measures the district should have.
More funding for security and mental health initiatives has become available in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde this May, and safety has been a top issue for leadership at local school districts this semester.
McAllen school district leaders discussed in August plans to apply for a grant that would provide the district’s police force with bullet-resistant shields.
The district has recently described its security measures as robust, but has declined to elaborate on areas where security could be improved, saying the release of that information could be used nefariously by individuals who mean to harm students and personnel.
On Nov. 14 administration told the board it’s pursuing a $913,386 school safety standards formula grant and a $57,140 silent panic alert technology grant.
The first of those grants has a wide scope of allowable uses intended to make campuses less vulnerable targets.
Those uses include physical improvements related to fencing, doors and windows. The grant would require equipment that allows emergency responder two-way radios to function within most portions of a building, exterior door numbering and an exterior secure master key lock.
Other allowable items include security cameras, employment of district peace officers, active shooter and emergency response training, metal detectors, radio systems, electronic door-locking systems and programs related to suicide prevention and intervention.
Is $900,000 in safety funding enough? Trustee Conrado “Ito” Alvarado said no.
“It’s really just, it’s not enough money. And it’s not towards anybody here at the district, it’s just that the state is giving us less than a million for all of these things — even though we’ve done a good job of doing these things ourselves, there’s other school districts that are nowhere near where we are at — still we could use a lot more money on this,” he said. “So just for the record, I’m saying this, it’s ridiculous that we don’t have more money and it should have come quicker.”
Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez said the grant providing insufficient funds was a consensus of superintendents across the region.
The second grant the district is providing for, for silent panic alert technology, should cover all of the district’s campuses, district Police Chief Joey Silva said.
That grant will support silent system signals.
“Silent panic alert technology is generally defined as a silent system signal generated by the activation of a device, either manually or through software applications, intended to signal a life-threatening or emergency situation (such as an active shooter, intruder, or other emergency situation) requiring a response from law enforcement and/or other first responders,” board materials read.
According to Silva, that panic alert technology will piggyback off of existing infrastructure.
“It’s $1,200 a campus. That’s with the licensing fee,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how many devices you put the panic alarm on, it’s solely $1,200 for every single campus.”
