DENVER — After the Parkland High School shooting in early 2018, Colorado state legislators set aside nearly $30 million in grants for safety improvements to schools across the state.
In turn, those schools asked for $60 million in improvements.
“There was $29.5 million for school security measures and some of the things that schools asked for were things like classroom locks on doors,” said Christine Harms, director of the Colorado School Safety Resource Center, a branch of the Colorado Division of Public Safety.
The details of the funding requests aren’t easily available, as many schools want to maintain privacy about potential vulnerabilities, but the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, which handled the grand funding, released a list of how much each school requested.
Jeffco Schools, for instance, requested $1.5 million for improvements in schools. They were granted $712,387. The money went toward classroom door locks for elementary schools and a new notification system, according to Jeffco Schools spokeswoman Diana Wilson.
Adams 12 Five Star Schools requested funding for one project, upgrading an outdated card reader access system for schools.
Chris Wilderman, director of safe and sustainable environments for Adams 12 said the district hasn’t received the $802,740 yet. But the district is using both grant funds and bond money to improve the card system with the goal of having every student use an access card to enter and exit buildings.
Boulder Valley Schools asked for and received about $1.4 million.
“We’re going to be using the money to fund additional cameras at our K-8 schools,” Boulder Valley spokesman Randy Barber said. “We’ll get to have additional radios so we better the communication between our schools and the security.”
The largest request in this round of grant funding came from Cherry Creek School District. The district submitted a list of projects totaling $18 million.
The largest project would build a 24-hour dispatch and command center for Cherry Creek Security, costing about $6 million. The district also requested funding for push-button locks for 90 percent of CCSD classrooms, panic buttons for the district’s 45 elementary schools, an intercom upgrade, trauma bags for each classroom, AED kits and ballistic vests for security vehicles, and other improvements.
The state granted Cherry Creek $1.3 million, which a spokeswoman for the district said would be used on intercom improvements and trauma bags for each classroom. Those bags would include medical supplies students and staff may need in a crisis when they can’t get out of a classroom.
For the full list of school grants and requests, click here.
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