School district takes first step in plans for armed guards in elementary, middle schools

The Kanawha County Board of Education approved the first reading of the policy during a meeting Thursday. Under the proposal, only retired law enforcement officers with the proper credentials and training would be permitted to fill the positions.

“Primarily, the purpose for them is to protect the students and staff that are inside the building from people outside the building coming in and committing any violent acts,” general counsel Lindsey McIntosh said.

To be funded by excess levy revenue

The excess levy funds for the positions will not be available until the start of the fiscal year on July 1. However, if the policy is approved, the security officers could be in place as early as the next school year, pending a successful hiring process, KCS officials said.

The program will cost the school district about $1 million in the first year, including transportation and initial outfitting, but that cost could be lower in subsequent years, said executive director of safety and security Keith Vititoe.

The money comes from an earmark in the levy of $2,737,000 for safety and security improvements across the district, including weapon detection systems in high schools, secure entrances at every school that does not have one and additional security team staff.

Covering a security gap

All of the county’s high schools and several of the middle schools already have prevention resource officers, who are active law enforcement personnel assigned to work in the school system, Superintendent Tom Williams said. These new security personnel will focus on the schools that aren’t already covered, he said.

“They won’t be in uniform or anything like that,” Williams said. “They will be very low-key.”

The security officers won’t have any administrative duties or be involved in school discipline matters, McIntosh said.

“It is purely for the purpose of making sure that any individual outside of the building that comes into the building with the intent to harm anybody in the building can be addressed by this person,” she said.

KCS was unable to afford the creation of more than 12 positions, so a rotating schedule will be created, Vititoe said.

The security personnel would greatly enhance safety in the county’s elementary and middle schools, said Vititoe, who worked alongside McIntosh to develop the policy.

“We would love to have one for every school but we knew that financially that wouldn’t be plausible, so this is our compromise,” Vititoe said. “We will rotate them around and, if there is an elevated concern at a particular school, we will reassign them as necessary.”

While the Legislature has attempted to approve bills that would specifically permit armed guards in schools, school officials said there’s nothing currently in state code that prohibits school districts from hiring armed security personnel.

Additionally, existing state code prohibiting the carrying of weapons on school grounds contains an exemption for retired law enforcement officers who meet state qualifications for carrying their weapon after retirement. The same section also permits concealed carrying of a handgun by anyone — except a student — authorized by the county board of education or the school principal to conduct programs with valid educational purposes.

Students to receive summer math kits

Also during Thursday’s meeting, the board approved a contract for $526,970 for the creation of summer math kits for students. Through the program, backpacks with summer math learning tools will be sent home to 6,000 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, director of Title I programs Melissa Wilfong said.

KCS is contracting with a company, Teacher Created Materials, to design and create backpacks that will contain engaging, grade-appropriate learning materials, Wilfong said.

Board member Kate White endorsed the endeavor, saying, “I’m really supportive of giving students opportunities over the summer to keep learning.” She also asked if principals would be giving students incentives for completing the work contained in the kits.

Wilfong said there would be a plan in place to implement the instructional materials.

“I’m going to speak with the principals and they’re going to have a process where they inform parents that these are not just going to be sent home on the last day of school and thrown in the trunk of a car or something,” Wilfong said. “We’re going to be able to roll that out very carefully, let them know what’s in the bags, what the student scan do. There are a lot of independent activities because quite often our students are by themselves. With that, I’m also going to ask the principals to attach an incentive to those.”