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Davenport Schools Want to Increase Security

The superintendent of the Davenport schools wants to improve security, but will need permission from the state. Wednesday night the board of education approved making an amergency request to the Iowa School Budget Review Committee.

Doctor Art Tate says in recent years the district has made it harder to enter the schools, requiring people to go through several "layers" of security. There have also been two armed police officers patrolling the high schools, and district staff acting as security supervisors at many other buildings. 

For next fall, he wants to add more - officers and supervisors.

"We have no more spending authority. We're actually reducing our budget. So I'm going to the School Budget Review Committee to ask for spending authority to use our cash reserve that we have - we have 17 million in reserve - to use that for this program."

Tate says the Davenport district has used the local option tax for schools and other funds to make the buildings more secure, but that money cannot be used for the new personnel he wants to hire. 

Information was sent to the School Budget Review Committee Thursday, and it's scheduled to consider the request next Tuesday (7/3). 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.