Shelbyville Central Schools board accepts $100,000 security grant for school resource officers

Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 12:31 PM

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The Shelbyville Central Schools board accepted the Indiana Secured School Safety grant Wednesday at its monthly meeting at the administrative office.

The grant agreement provides SCS with $100,000 that the school system will use for its School Resource Officer (SRO) program. To receive the grant, SCS must match the grant with its own $100,000 investment.

“That’s what we use to pay our school resource officers with,” said Shelbyville Central Schools Superintendent Dr. Matt Vance. “It doesn’t cover the entire amount of money we use for SROs but it covers a big part of it. We appreciate that very much. It’s very important for us to get that every year.”

City of Shelbyville police officers and local sheriffs assist with security in SCS’ five buildings. Not only are the officers a visible part of the SCS security plan, they also interact with students on a daily basis.

“I say this all the time that school safety is our No.1 priority,” said Vance. “We continue to look for ways to improve the safety of our facilities for our students and staff. We always want to make sure we are not overlooking anything.

“We have a great relationship with local law enforcement, the Shelbyville Police Department and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department. Our school resource officers do an amazing job.”

In other board business Wednesday:

Shelbyville High School tennis players Karson Schaf and Aiden Smith were honored for their advancement to the state finals of the IHSAA State Doubles Tournament. Schaf and Smith, 24-5 this season, were one of six teams to reach the state finals. Dr. Vance announced the school system’s enrollment count for the fall semester is 3,661 students, down 59 students from the same point in 2022. Dr. Vance updated the board on the ongoing construction projects within the school system. The renovation projects at Coulston Elementary and Loper Elementary have moved to Phase 4. There are six phases of the complete renovation project that will continue through the current school year. Also, the Black Box Theater project at Shelbyville Middle School is nearly complete.

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