Blumenthal Visits Shelton To Talk School Security

Towns everywhere are looking to beef up security at schools in the wake of last December’s horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

But at the same time, they’re also wrestling with setting spending priorities in the midst of a still sluggish economy.

Could federal help come to the rescue to pay for such improvements?

Probably not anytime in the immediate future, according to U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who stopped by Shelton Intermediate School Tuesday (April 2) to check out the school’s security features.

Schools should really make safety initiatives a priority and be prepared to get local resources,” Blumenthal said Tuesday, noting that he’s currently working to get a bill passed that can help supplement” that local funding.

Blumenthal’s proposal would reauthorize the Secure Our Schools Act,” which was first passed in 2000 to pay for security-related capital improvements.

The renewal of the act would provide $40 million annually in federal grants over the next 10 years for security-related capital improvements, training, and security assessments, he said.

Blumenthal said he wants to make even more federal money available to municipalities for school security.

But whether any of that cash will be coming anytime soon is another matter.

I am never overconfident about Congress doing anything these days,” he said. Any effort requires hard work.”

Officials in several lower Naugatuck Valley towns are contemplating increased security measures at schools.

In Derby, the school district is considering whether to spend $200,000 this year on security upgrades.

In Seymour, a $377,000 line item in this year’s budget to pay for school resource officers at each of the town’s schools became has become a sticking point in the town’s annual spending debate.

ETHAN FRYIn Shelton, Mayor Mark Lauretti said during his budget address last week that the city would commit funding to make security improvements to school entryways and windows.

Schools Superintendent Freeman Burr said Tuesday that the city has a bid request out for making entryways more secure at three of the city’s elementary schools — Long Hill School, Elizabeth Shelton School, and Mohegan School — where they are most needed.

But Burr said Tuesday the school district is looking to make other improvements like upgrades to surveillance cameras and putting security film” or steel mesh in school windows at schools throughout the district.

At the same time, they don’t want to go overboard.

The dilemma, said SIS Headmaster Kenneth Saranich, is making the building safe, yet friendly to visitors.”

We have to make sure it’s an inviting place to be where kids want to learn,” he said.

Blumenthal said the Secure Our Schools proposal would primarily focus on providing money for making infrastructure improvements at schools, and not things like the hiring of school resource officers.

SIS was the seventh Connecticut school Blumenthal has visited in recent weeks to talk with educators about security.

Keep local reporting alive. Donate.ValleyIndy.org