Safe Schools group to seek grants

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Putnam County Safe Schools Committee has agreed to keep working with independent consultant Jennifer Meadows regarding the possibility of procuring future grants for the organization.

Meadows, from Montgomery County, had met with committee members several times in recent months, working up a grant proposal. The local committee had plans to apply for the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative grant, a program that had been formed in 1999 under the Clinton administration. The $3 million grant, however, was recently pulled, leaving the committee in limbo regarding future grants.

At Thursday's meeting, former committee chairman Dan Bain told the other in attendance that he planned to continue contacting Meadows for future grant writing. But he said he was disappointed with how things were moving.

"I'm disgruntled," Bain said. "I don't know what else to say. I have not been contacted by her. I don't have any positive thing to report on that."

Bain told the committee members Thursday that Meadows had not been paid money that was set aside for her services.

Committee member Pam Turner suggested someone contact Meadows to see what she currently has put together for the organization.

"She did spend some time (here)," committee member Patti Harmless added.

Bain added other items may have got in the way for Meadows.

Current committee chairman Shawn Gobert asked Bain if he could contact Meadows about future work with the organization, which Bain agreed to do. He asked Bain to ask Meadows if she could attend the organization's October meeting.

"Hopefully, she can show up in October or give us the information she has," Gobert said.

Meanwhile, the board added another goal to its 2006-07 list.

The members at Thursday's meeting agreed to attempt to set up Parent Nights at each of the four county schools to discuss a variety of topics, including drug use and cyber bullying (as on myspace.com) with the Putnam County Sheriff's Dept.

Committee member Sonny Stoltz had originally suggested centralizing the meetings, with one meeting taking place at a central location for two schools, but the committee believed it would be better if there were meetings at each corporation.

"I think we should have one for each school," Harmless said.

The board agreed to place an emphasis on parental education through the discussions.

In other business, the board:

* Learned from Turner that it was not known if the organization had acquired the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Program yet. She said she would no at a later date.

* Agreed to continue meeting at 9:30 a.m. on the first Thursday of each month.

* Learned that Dave Woodward, Program Coordinator for the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy, will attend the organization's October meeting. Gobert told those at Thursday's meeting that Woodward likes to visit the committees statewide while in action.

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