Scott county r-IV school district is a small rural district located in scott county, missouri

IT serves the communities of blodgett, benton, commerce, and diehlstadt. The district has three buildings (elementary, middle, and high school) serving 925 students and 135 faculty and staff members. In collaboration with the scott county sheriff's department, the proposed security enhancements will positively contribute to the current 12 minute average emergency response time after dispatched. This year to date, the school district has called upon the assistance of emergency services five times with an average response time of 15 minutes or longer. The district's campus is located in an area where cellular signal is low or non-existent in parts of the boundaries. The level of cellular service that currently exists in the district is problematic for communicating or calling out in the event of an emergency where landlines were disconnected and/or out of range with the district's current handheld radios. Thus, this proposal includes purchasing new digital handheld radios with updated technology to communicate throughout campus and the district. Also, the proposal includes the purchase of moswin radios to communicate directly with the sheriff's department and highway patrol in an emergency. In the event of an active shooter or other security situation, the response time for law enforcement and medical personnel is beyond the current statistics to effectively stop or mitigate loss of life during the incident. Installing alert notification buttons in every classroom will help reduce the notification time in the event of an active shooter. The history of active shooter events in schools throughout the country does not reveal any specific pattern of entry. With that in mind, installing alert notificaiton buttons in every classroom will allow faculty and staff the opportunityt to notify law enforcement immediately versus calling the office and reporting. Directly contacting law enforcement through the alert system will drastically reduce response time and eleveate any low or non-existent cellular signal in and around campus. Finally, the georaphic location of the school plays a vital role in assessing threats in and around campus. Currently, the north side of campus is exposed to unwanted access to campus without the ability to monitor well because of the terrain. Installing a six feet or higher fence along the district's north boundary line will assist in deterring unwanted access to campus that also connects to the elementary playground. The fence will protect elementary students who are at recess from exposure to threats along the major highway and others during the school day while providing access after school hours when students are not present. All of the items in this proposal are intended to mitigate threats of harm to all persons on campus at anytime.