The Worcester County Board of Education is requesting small capital expenditures from the local government.
Chief Operations and Human Relations Officer Dr. Dwayne Abt said that in years when the Worcester County government has supplemental funding, the school system is permitted to request one-time capital expenditures of less than $250,000 per project. In collaboration with Maintenance and Operations Manager Sam Slacum, Abt presented the 20-item list of potential initiatives to the school board at their Tuesday, Oct. 15 meeting.
The request includes updated security cameras for Buckingham Elementary School, Showell Elementary School, the Board of Education office, and security vestibules for Ocean City Elementary School, Berlin Intermediate School, BES, Snow Hill Middle School, Cedar Chapel Special School, and Pocomoke Middle School.
Additionally, the board hopes to receive local funding for new radios for all schools, water heaters at Stephen Decatur Middle School, and exhaust fan replacements at Snow Hill Elementary School, Pocomoke Elementary School, PMS, SHMS, and CCSS.
Slacum said that Shawn Goddard, the manager of school safety, reviewed many of the security items included in the request, such as the cameras and vestibules.
“A lot of these items are direct products of our school safety committee as well as school safety best practices,” Slacum added.