Feedback from St. Vrain Valley School District
January 2025
“The St. Vrain Valley School District takes a comprehensive, all-hazards approach to school
safety. When evaluating school safety solutions, St. Vrain evaluates the various ways a
particular product or service addresses known or potential hazards. Through the School
Safety Disbursement Grant, we were able to provide enhanced protective solutions for
school windows. Keeping true to our all-hazards approach, this solution allowed our schools
to be more energy efficient, reduce UV exposure, and protect the occupants in a variety of
natural and human-caused events.
The School Safety Disbursement Grant provided us an opportunity to test these safety
upgrades and evaluate their effectiveness prior to moving forward with a district-wide
initiative to improve safety across all of our schools. Because St. Vrain was able to test the
enhancements on a small scale at a few schools, the district was ready to scale the
improvements district-wide in its November 2024 bond package, which passed
overwhelmingly. As a result, the grant had a broad impact far beyond the schools it directly
supported, enhancing school safety for every student in St. Vrain.”
Feedback from Weld RE-5J Johnstown Milliken
December 2024
“Regarding the School Security Disbursement Grant 2024, Weld RE5J set out to
improve district-wide interoperability. This grant allowed us to purchase radios and
repeaters to enhance current coverage on school properties. In addition, it allowed us to
reach multiple schools and the administration team at the administration building when
emergencies arise. While a simple process, and relatively few hiccups along the way,
the most difficult struggle was implementation and providing a policy standard practice
on the operations and the context of the use of these radios.
Still an easy prospect, just needed to keep people on the point and direct them back if they
strayed from the route established. Overall, this grant afforded the district a chance to
have better communication when emergencies arise. We strive to push the bar for the safety
and security of our schools and are proud we were able to use the Office of School Safety as
a partner to achieve our highest priority goals for this grant.”
Feedback from the Superintendent at Sanford School District:
November 2024
“I want to thank you guys for working with us on this grant! I just have to report that last Thursday we had a scenario that the new cameras were vital to our investigation. The previous would not have been helpful but the new ones we purchased with the grant very well may have saved a life. Their high resolution provided the view we needed and we had concrete evidence that helped us sort out the issue. Thanks again! We really appreciate it!”
Share Your Success - Be Featured in The Grants Corner of the OSS E-Update!
We want to celebrate your achievements! If you've had success with any of our grants, share your story with us. Submit a short narrative detailing your project's impact, and you could be featured in our upcoming E-Update. Photos welcome. Your success inspires others—let's showcase the incredible work happening in our schools!
Thank you,
OSS Grants Unit