La Crosse School District gets notice of second round of school safety grants

The La Crosse School District has been awarded with a second round of grants from the state.

The district will get $365,963. Unlike the first round of grants, this money is more for staff training, according to safety coordinator Scott Johnson, who says the program has been very valuable.

“There’s a lot of districts in the state of Wisconsin that haven’t done hardly anything — whether it’s budget constraints or they don’t think it’s going to happen here,” he said.

But, Johnson also said it took a lot of time to make sure they were investing in the right things.

“It’s something that you don’t want to just jump into bc everybody’s decided to throw their hat in the ring and come up with this,” he said. “You really gotta be responsible and accountable for what you pick out there.”

After the district previously spent funds updating its paging system and doors to make sure no one can enter without being buzzed in by the school office, this money will focus on something entirely different.

“This round of grants will be for more of the mental health training — a great additive for dealing with more of the behaviour side of everything,” Johnson said.

The program was created by Gov. Scott Walker about a month after the Parkland, Florida school shooting that killed 17 students and staff back in February.

The grants were given out by the Wisconsin Department of Justice.