COLUMBUS – Schools in central Ohio will share almost $7 million in grant money from the state for safety improvements.
More than 600 schools in Ohio, including the Columbus City Columbus, the South Western City Schools and the Pickerington Local Schools, received more than $42 million to support physical safety and security upgrades, like new security cameras, public address systems, automatic door locks, visitor badging systems, and exterior lighting from the latest round of funding from Ohio’s K-12 School Safety Grant Program.
Franklin County schools received $2.7 million, $637, 503 of which went to the Columbus district and $408,000 to the South Western City Schools. Of the $2.7 million granted to Fairfield County schools, $1.5 million went to the schools in Pickerington.
Altogether, central Ohio schools received $6.7 million from the program, which was created in 2021 to help schools pay for security expenses through Ohio’s operating budget and with allocations from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
The total expenditures of $215 million to date have been allocated to nearly 3,000 schools (see illustration).