A total of $19.4 million dollars in Secured School Safety Grants were announced today by the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. These funds can be used by a local school or school district for a variety of reasons, such as paying for school resource officers, conducting a threat assessment, buying equipment to restrict access to schools and funding one-time start-up costs of an active alert warning system being among those proper uses. All three of the school corporations located in Starke County received a portion of those funds, with North Judson-San Pierre receiving about $33,000, Knox about $20,000, and Oregon-Davis about $15,000.
Under the terms of the program, schools with a population of from 1-500 have a requirement for a 50% match for grants of up to $50,000. For schools with a population of from 501-1000 students, the match is 25% for grants up to $35,000 and 50% on grants up to $50,000. This year's recipients included 418 schools or school systems.