The Marion Independent School District is making use of nearly $700,000 in federal grant funding to enhance its safety and security measures across several schools.
The district is the only one in Iowa to be awarded the 2023 COPS Office School Violence Prevention Program grant, at a total of $352,199. This is combined with $330,958 MISD received through the same grant in 2022.
With the previous year’s funds, the district installed new Front Row Conductor equipment at both Francis Marion Intermediate School and Marion High School. This has allowed each teacher to wear a lanyard microphone that allows them to contact the school office with the push of a button. The buildings also have new intercom and paging systems, along with teacher voice amplification technology in each classroom.
The 2023 funds will enable MISD to install the Front Row Conductor system at Vernon Middle School. The district will also implement Crisis Go across all its schools. This system allows every person in a school building to respond to a crisis situation quickly and effectively..
In 2023, the COPS Office received 1,022 applications from jurisdictions in 50 states and made 206 awards totaling $73,619,458.
The COPS School Violence Prevention Program is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Justice. For more information, visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/svpp.