MONROE — The Wisconsin Department of Justice Office of School Safety recently announced its final grant disbursements to area districts, capping off the local schools’ first round of funding to improve safety for its students with state aid.

In an announcement from state Attorney General Brad Schimel, $5.5 million in grant funding was given to 60 school districts Aug. 2. The later recipients included the School District of Albany, which received nearly $60,000, in line with what the district requested, and Argyle school district with over $55,000, which was $12,000 more than requested. 

Brodhead and Pecatonica school districts were the earliest area grant recipients in round one of announcements from Schimel. Pecatonica schools received $40,000. Brodhead was provided with nearly $54,000. Both received the amounts they requested, according to the DOJ. 

Pecatonica District Administrator Jill Underly said at the time that the district plans to use its grant funds to replace phone systems within the district and use the rest of the amount toward paying for an update to the announcement sound systems in both of the district buildings. 

For Brodhead, District Administrator Lenny Lueck said in late June that the district planned to use the funds to add more than 50 cameras, a feat they would not have been able to organize so quickly without the added funds.

On June 28, the New Glarus school district received slightly more than the amount it requested. The district was given over $62,000 as a part of the first round of school safety grants. 

Monroe had planned to update its facilities regardless of whether it received any state-level grant funding, District Administrator Rick Waski said after related legislation was passed in April. District officials estimated roughly $30,000 in funding based on its population, but Monroe received nearly $103,000 in grants on July 9. 

Among plans for safety updates, Waski said three main priorities were a closed-circuit video/audio system to greet visitors at the doors of each school, door locks with a mechanism to bar entry with a push of a button and internal door alarms. Members of the Monroe School Board are still considering how to use the funding. 

St. Victor School in Monroe was granted over $19,000 for school safety on July 9 as well.

The majority of area grant recipients were announced July 19, including Darlington, Evansville, Juda and Monticello school districts. Darlington Community School District requested roughly $328,000 in funds, but received $40,000 total. Evansville Community School District received nearly $83,000, which was in line with the amount it was seeking. Juda received exactly how much it asked for with a grant disbursement of almost $27,000 and Monticello received slightly less than requested with over $26,000 in grants funds total.