Fentress County Commissioners approving more than $1.3 million in funding for school safety upgrades.
Director of Schools Kristi Hall said the funding was originally allocated in the previous year’s budget but rolled into the fund balance because the projects could not be completed. Hall said the funds will now be pulled from the fund balance to address specific security needs identified during safety assessments.
“The first one fencing, which will affect all the elementary schools around the outside playgrounds,” Hall said. “And then the second one was the vestibules, which are the entrances into the school, were identified on the safety assessment as areas that we need to improve.”
Hall said the current plan involves standard perimeter fencing rather than the netting used in some neighboring counties.
The commission also approved a separate budget amendment for the school system totaling $51,303.
“This budget amendment is for the Public School Construction and Maintenance Grant,” Hall said. “We received this grant middle of June is when it first come out, and so it was at the end of the fiscal year, so we were instructed by the state basically to let that roll into fund balance, so this is the ask to pull that grant money back out so that we can spend it in the new year.”
The safety upgrades follow a state-mandated safety assessment that highlighted the need for more secure entryways. Hall said the school system has been working with an architect to finalize the designs for the new vestibules to ensure they meet modern security standards.
“We identify kids that’s maybe struggling or at risk and they provide services to them, supports to them, resources to those and those families,” Hall said.
The commission also approved a $20,000 request from the school board for the Communities in Schools program, funded through the Opioid Abatement Committee. Hall said the program provides wrap-around services for at-risk students at South Fentress and Clarkrange High School.
