East Muskingum Schools Receives Safety Grant

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – It’s back to school time and student safety is a number one priority as kids head back to the classroom.

This year East Muskingum Local Schools is looking to enhance that safety with nearly $260,000 they will be receiving through a grant from the attorney general’s office.

Part of Governor Mike DeWine’s Ohio K-12 Safety Grant Program, the funds are allocated to six of their buildings including John Glenn High School and East Muskingum Middle School. 

East Muskingum Local Schools Superintendent David Adams says that with the grant money, they’re now working on security upgrades for their schools.

“Now we are working on the process of submitting orders, filling the rest of the grant obligation and then hopefully soon, installing those materials and items to make our building safer,” he explained.

The district’s buzz-in systems and points of entry at all buildings will be upgraded, including clearer, higher quality cameras and video systems, as well as adding radios for staff use in emergency events and providing additional training.

Adams says the goal is to keep all students safe and they are glad to be able to make these upgrades for safety.

“Student safety is our number one priority and we’ve had these particular measures in place. This grant allows us to enhance those, to improve those. It gives our staff and students, our community and parents some assurance and security, knowing that we have invested a significant amount of money towards school safety and that’s our number one priority, to keep our students safe on a daily basis,” Adams said.

The district greatly appreciates the grant and looks forward to the new school year which starts Wednesday, August 24th.