| Advertisement |
|
|
If there's one thing we've learned about school safety in the past month; it can always get better.
This week, Roanoke City brought in the best to see how safe their schools are.
Ken Trump is the president of the National Society of School Safety and Security Services. After his last visit in 2009, he made several recommendations on how to improve school safety.
As a result of those recommendations, Roanoke City made several upgrades. Over the past five years, City Schools made $1.2 million in upgrades to school security. The upgrades to school safety were put in place well before Trump's first visit, which was paid for by grants.
Trump says one of the biggest issues with school safety is federal funds that have run dry. Of the $1.2 million spent at Roanoke City, a school spokesperson estimates 75-percent of that money came from federal grants.
Trump says many of those grants have run dry and Roanoke City, led by Superintendent Rita Bishop, was smart to be hyper-active with all things school safety so early.
Trump's re-visit to Roanoke was planned well before the Sandy Hook shootings. Bishop contacted Trump after Sandy Hook to ensure he would come back and check up on how City schools responded to his 2009 proposals. Trump says he's been very busy since the Sandy Hook shootings, but rarely does he come back to a school system to do a checkup like the one he's doing in Roanoke City.
Despite the City paying the full cost of Trump and his team's three-day, $40,000 visit, Dr. Bishop said, "You can never put a price on a child's safety."