BLANCHARDVILLE — Two area school districts were awarded grants to improve security for their students through a wave of disbursements June 20 by the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Pecatonica school district received $40,000, its requested amount through the grant application, which District Administrator Jill Underly described as a “cumbersome” process. She said the district found out about the grant in early April and applied before the application deadline June 8.

Underly said Pecatonica plans to replace phone systems for $30,000 and utilize the remaining $10,000 for an update to the PA systems in both district buildings. The updates are part of an ongoing process of ensuring students’ safety.

“We’ve been updating our buildings continuously since, probably Columbine,” Underly said. “There are just always things learned after every tragedy.”

She added that because the grant could only be used “on certain things,” the district also plans to continue its work addressing suggestions given by Iowa County Sheriff’s Deputy Travis Cliff and Lafayette County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Theresa Burgess, who also serves as the office’s emergency management director. Underly said the officers indicated in mid-May that the wooden doors to classrooms could be updated. She also said one of the suggestions was shatter-proof film over the glass of windows, which runs roughly $15 per square foot.

The state attorney general announced that more than $1.9 million in grants were awarded to 19 school districts across Wisconsin, from the highest amount of $993,000 going to Madison Metropolitan to the modest sum of just over $10,000 distributed to the Lake Country and Rock Prairie Montessori school districts.

Brodhead District Administrator Lenny Lueck said the district received nearly $54,000 through its application, which was also the amount requested by the district.

Lueck said that material will be applied to the entrances of all three Brodhead district buildings as part of ongoing updates. He noted that the big item made available through the grant will be the addition of more than 50 cameras at each school and the improvement of technology used alongside the cameras.

“We’ve been doing a little bit at a time … without this grant we couldn’t be doing this,” Lueck said.

The district plans to have the improvements completed before the next school year. Lueck said current schedules have the updates on track for late July into early August.

Like Pecatonica, Lueck said Brodhead maintains work for continual security improvements. The district also plans to put interior-locking classroom doors into place. Another update will be secure entrances with identification systems at each door. Visitors will be allowed into an office-type area where they will have to scan a driver’s license or other ID card or type in their name. When this happens, Lueck said the system automatically runs a background check before printing a visitor badge.

Though the grant fund does not cover all of the improvements Pecatonica hopes to make, Underly said the district has been seeking contracts for work to pay for with district funds as well. While both school buildings have a scanning, or FOB, entry and camera system, she said some of the side doors used by staff still have manual keys. This creates a tendency to have doors propped open, she said.

The district also has plans for a push button system to instantly call 911 in emergencies. Another update would be to ensure a secured entryway for visitors, rather than a setup at Pecatonica High School, where visitors walk in with access to a stairway and the office doors sits roughly 15 feet forward to the left.

“We’ll look at that piece later, but right now, the grant has allowed us to make the smaller changes, which still help immensely,” Underly said. “It’ll be nice to have that enhancement.”