CMS leaders talk about safety measures for upcoming school year

CHARLOTTE — District leaders with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools talked about safety at their Tuesday night meeting that includes the implementation of more weapon detectors.

“We’re always looking to improve on safety issues,” Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh said. “We’ll do training for all staff through the summer and the fall for survival training processes.”

The district is expanding the use of weapon detectors to campuses to other than just high schools at a cost of $9.9 million.

Hattabaugh highlighted that scanners prove to be effective in deterring weapons. Four firearms were confiscated at K-8 and middle schools last semester, which was an all-time, he said.

However, CMS is missing out on grant funding for more school resource officers. The $15-million School Resource Officer Grant Program was included in the state budget that Gov. Roy Cooper signed Monday.

“We are not deemed a low-funded area, so Charlotte will not be able to access that particular monies for SROs,” Hattabaugh said.

School board member Lenora Shipp voiced her disappointment Tuesday night.

“We have not talked about additional safety measures for elementary, so I want us to look there, closely,” she said.

More safety measures include having an SRO assigned to each CMS elementary school. Currently, district officials said one SROs can be assigned to multiple schools.

“I was in the school system when Sandy Hook happened, and now look what just happened,” she said about the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. “The elementary schools need that protection. That supervision as well.”

Shipp said that the key will be ensuring the use of the resources the district has more wisely and economically.

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“Look at how do we make sure that we utilize the SROs,” Shipp said. “We do have to at least give some scheduled time to our elementary and they know that there are SROs they can call on and depend on”

Shipp said she talked to Hattabaugh and the measurement can be obtained.

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