Baldwin-Whitehall, Char Valley, West Jefferson Hills receive Safe Schools’ Targeted Grants

A new school police officer will be hired in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, and added cameras will be placed in buildings, all thanks to a state grant aimed at improving school safety and reducing violence.

In Chartiers Valley, the school district will use the $40,000 it received from the grant to help offset costs for a school police officer it hired in June, while West Jefferson Hills will use its $20,000 to bolster programs.

In all, more than $7 million in Safe Schools’ Targeted Grants were distributed to schools statewide. Grants were given to districts to help purchase safety and security-related equipment and provide training and compensation for school resource and police officers.

Baldwin-Whitehall and Chartiers Valley joined Community Day School as the only three public schools in Allegheny County to receive funding to offset costs for school police officers in the 2019-20 cycle.

Baldwin-Whitehall has one school police officer who doubles as the district’s director of safety and security. A Whitehall police officer works as a school resource officer in all district schools.

The grant — which for Baldwin-Whitehall includes $40,000 the first year and an additional stipend the second year — will help supplement the addition of another school officer to work out of either Harrison Middle School or Baldwin High School, Superintendent Randal Lutz said.

“It’s someone here, every single day. It’s an awareness. It’s visibility,” he said.

While the superintendent says a school police officer will help to respond to a crisis, for him, it’s about much more than that. “We’re really looking for someone on a daily basis to assist kids in making the right decisions, in being in class on time and behaving themselves in the way that Baldwin kids need to behave,” Lutz said. “It’s not about coming in and being the heavy-handed law and order person. It is about forming relationships.”

Baldwin-Whitehall also received $24,800 for equipment, which will include adding additional cameras at its middle and elementary schools and increased radio communication.

Chartiers Valley Superintendent Johannah Vanatta sent a letter to parents in recent weeks detailing all of the safety efforts underway in the district, which includes developing safety and security curricula for students and focusing on social and emotional wellness.

“While we may never rid the world of all wrongdoing, it is my hope that these proactive measures and practices will have a positive impact on our students both now and in their futures,” she wrote.

West Jefferson Hills will use the funding it received from the grant in three areas, including for training of its threat assessment teams, to help offset costs for alternative education placement for disruptive youth and to provide ongoing programming and trainings through the Dignity & Respect Campaign, said Scott Milburn, assistant superintendent of secondary education.

“It gives us the opportunity to participate in critical programming and professional development that we believe is going to translate directly to helping our students,” he said.

To view the full list of grants, visit: https://www.education.pa.gov/Schools/safeschools/fundinggrants/Pages/default.aspx.