This is the third installment in a multi-part series about school safety in Iowa.
Following the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where a high school student killed 19 students and two teachers, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds decided it was time to ramp up funding for school safety measures in Iowa.
On June 14, 2022, Reynolds announced the Governor’s School Safety Initiative, providing $100 million in school safety funding to Iowa’s schools. This initiative was financed using the American Rescue Plan Act and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, also known as ESSER, fund.
The $100 million was divided up into several facets going toward school security. $75 million was designated to a school safety improvement fund that would specifically target security improvements in schools.
Another $7.5 million was designated for vulnerability assessments for 1,500 K-12 school buildings in the state, and $6 million was allocated for digital critical incidents mapping technology. Another $4.5 million was designated for radios in schools, and $1.5 million was designated for digital technologies for threat reporting and monitoring.
The final $5.5 million was slated for the Governor’s School Safety Bureau operational funding, which lasts through 2026. The bureau is tasked with helping local schools identify and respond to security threats by providing emergency radios to schools and conducting training with school staff and law enforcement.
Dave Wilson, the coordinator for Emergency Management of Johnson County, said that after the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting in which 26 people were killed, the Iowa governor’s office began to ramp up school safety measures.
Wilson, the state association president at the time, said the governor’s office put together a school safety task force. Six years later, in 2018, Wilson said high-quality emergency operation plans for schools in Iowa became codified.
He said this resulted in an increased need for training and school safety assessments within schools throughout Iowa. So, Reynolds established the Governor’s School Safety Initiative to provide the funding for these school safety measures.
The $50,000 from this initiative had to be spent by January 2024, and Wilson and his team worked with schools to determine how the money should be spent. Wilson and his team would assess vulnerability and then help establish physical safety measures like cameras, reinforced glass hardening, and security locks.
The Iowa City Community School District is among those that have put physical safety measures in place to protect students and staff in the event of a security breach.
According to the district’s website, Iowa City schools have established secured building entrances, locked classrooms, security cameras, shatterproof window film, security systems, emergency radios, mass notification systems, and have removed fire pull stations from most areas of schools except the main office and maintenance areas.
Kate Callahan, director of student services for Iowa City schools, said the district created a committee last year composed of department heads to help determine the best use of safety features in the district.
“We meet weekly, and our focus is on reviewing safety features and how we can enhance them at a district level,” she said. “That’s definitely been an increased focus.”
In an email to The Daily Iowan, Davis Eidahl, the Solon Community School District superintendent, wrote that his district completed several safety enhancements in the past school year.
These enhancements included upgrading video surveillance systems by replacing older cameras with new ones and almost doubling the number installed.
“These cameras provide more coverage and are accessible by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department in emergencies,” Eidahl wrote.
Additionally, Eidahl wrote that the district updated its key fob system for outer door access to its schools, providing a more secure system and faster lockdown capability. The district also installed film on the inside glass of classrooms to ensure they are safe in an emergency.
The funding for these enhancements came partly from the $50,000 Governor’s School Safety Initiative and from a general obligation bond, which was voter-approved in March of 2024.
The safety initiative provided the Solon Community School District with $200,000, and the district also used about $165,000 from its general obligation bond to complete safety enhancements.
While these physical safety measures are progress in terms of ensuring school safety, Wilson said there is a continued need for training.