BELLE - The Maries County R-2 School District is the recipient of $100,000 from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) School Safety Grant Program.

Superintendent Dr. Lenice Basham said the new grant will be added to their existing grant to make security improvements within the district.

“This is in addition to the COPS Grant that we received earlier in the year,” Basham said. “We do have plans to increase security and safety for our students in all of our buildings with the funds.”

Belle is one of 169 school districts informed on April 28 that they had received funds from the $20 million Security grant allocation. There are around 500 school districts in the state of Missouri. The grant is meant to provide financial support to local education agencies to increase security measures, including physical security upgrades and associated technology (door locks, monitoring systems), bleeding control kits, and automatic external defibrillators.

According to a press release from Gov. Mike Parson’s office, “Improving the safety and security of our schools is an issue we can all support, and these grants help ensure our schools remain safe environments for Missouri children to learn.”

The district had to complete and submit its application by April 7 to DESE. The grant was part of Parson’s fiscal year 2023 early supplemental budget request. The 2024 proposed budget includes an additional $50 million to the program, if it is approved by the General Assembly.

“Funding to support safety helps ensure schools remain among the safest places for our students,” said Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven. “These grant funds to support the physical safety of the schools are an important part of ensuring our students have a safe environment for learning and growing.”

School districts applied for the grant through a competitive application process for a maximum amount of $900,000 for districts/schools with the largest student populations.

“We are very excited to receive additional funds from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to help increase the safety of our students and staff,” Basham said about the Maries R-2 grant. “We are very appreciative that DESE and the governor are focused on ensuring that our schools remain a safe place for our students to learn and our staff to teach.”