SOUTHWICK – At a recent school committee meeting for the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District, Southwick school resource officer Michael Taggart and State Representative Nick Boldyga gave a presentation to the committee about school safety upgrades they are looking to make in the district.
In October 2017, Boldyga successfully secured a line item of $50,000 for school safety upgrades for the district. The line item is a part of Gov. Charlie Baker’s FY (Fiscal Year) 2018 $39.4 billion budge which was signed into law on July 24, 2017.
School resource officer Michael Taggart and Rep. Nick Boldyga gave a presentation to the school committee and Superintendent Jen Willard about the $50,000 for school safety upgrades. (Photo courtesy of Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District)
Taggart and Boldyga indicated that one intention of the $50,000 grant will be “go bags”, which have a number of different supplies that will go in every classroom. “Go bags” will allow classrooms to have the proper equipment that they need in the case of an emergency or school lockdown.
There will also be security upgrades to the camera systems at all three schools. Taggart added that there will be a public address sign outside of every front entrance of the schools. The sign will be a blue strobe light with an audible warning on it, informing people that are trying to enter the school, to not enter if there is a lockdown or some sort of emergency occurring in that particular school building.
Taggart has the responsibility of keeping the entire school district safe on a daily basis and he is pleased with the upgrades that will be implemented in the near future.
“It’s huge,” said Taggart. “It would not be as effective as what we would get now.”
Not only does Boldyga represent the communities that constitute the school district, he has children of his own that attend the schools in the district.
“I want to make sure that the kids are safe and that the teachers are safe as well,” said Boldyga.
According to Taggart, he’s reached out to the Massachusetts DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) to work on getting the $50,000 in place and ready to be used by the school district.
