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Shaler Area School District benefits from two grants aimed to improve school safety

Shaler Area School District will benefit from two separate grants through the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Safe Schools Initiative Targeted Grant program aimed at improving school safety in the district.

Shaler Area School District is one of 119 Pennsylvania schools to be awarded a $25,000 grant through the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Safe Schools Initiative Targeted Grant program.

Shaler Area received the maximum grant amount, which will allow the district to continue with the gradual upgrade of the buildings’ proximity card readers. The project will continue at Shaler Area High School to replace the aging access system and retrofit the buildings with an integrated access system to ensure that exterior doors are secured throughout the school day and only authorized individuals can enter specific doors. The project started by installing the system at Shaler Area Middle School and Central Office in the summer 2015.

"Our partnership with the Office of Safe Schools at the Pennsylvania Department of Education has provided Shaler Area School District with a tremendous opportunity to continue to enhance our security measures throughout the district and to do so through grant funds,” said Dr. Bryan O'Black, assistant superintendent of schools. “As a district school safety continues to be paramount to our K-12 operations and we are thankful for the continued funding provided by PDE.”

The new system is part of the district’s school safety plan, and plans will be put into place to continue to move this system into the other district buildings.

The PDE Safe Schools Initiative grant was open to school districts or intermediate units, charter schools and vocational-technical schools to purchase equipment or expand programs to promote an environment of greater productivity, safety and learning. Only 7 schools in Allegheny County received a grant.

Additionally, Shaler Area School District also benefit from a Pennsylvania Department of Education Safe Schools Initiative Targeted Grant awarded to the Shaler Township Police Department to fund the School Resource Officer assigned to the district.

Since the 2014-15 school year, Shaler Township Police Officer Frank Spiker has been a uniformed police presence in all the Shaler Area schools and a direct connection between the school district and area police department resources as the School Resource Officer.

Shaler Area’s School Resource Officer program was initially funded with a $60,000 grant awarded to the police department from PDE’s Safe Schools Initiative Targeted Grant Program. This year’s $30,000 grant to the Shaler Township Police Department will ensure Officer Spiker can continue his work to improve attendance, community awareness and parent involvement and decrease reportable offenses as the School Resource Officer.


Grants help Shaler Area control school access, pay for resource officer
TribLIVE | Neighborhoods article Feb. 15, 2016
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1800 Mt. Royal Boulevard     Glenshaw, PA. 15116     P 412-492-1200     F 412-492-1236
1800 Mt. Royal Boulevard Glenshaw, PA. 15116 P 412-492-1200 F 412-492-1236
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