January 30, 2013 - School safety will be discussed next week during Mehlville Superintendent Eric Knost's second town-hall meeting of the 2012-2013 school year.
The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, at Andre's Banquet Center, 4254 Telegraph Road, in place of the originally scheduled Board of Education meeting.
However, the superintendent said he does not want to limit the conversation to strictly school safety.
"We want to have that focus to definitely invite folks, since there are concerns, (and) that's a night they can come out and talk directly to the superintendent," Knost said.
The Board of Education recently voted unanimously to approve the use of four additional police officers for four hours per day at the district's elementary schools and the John Cary Early Childhood Center — after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children and six adults dead.
The additional police officers will cost $35,000.
Buzzer systems were installed at Mehlville and Oakville high schools within the last month as well. Elementary and middle schools already had buzzer systems in place before the Sandy Hook shooting.
At the board's Jan. 10 meeting, board member Rich Franz suggested a town-hall meeting be conducted for the community on the topic of school safety.
Knost announced the town-hall meeting at last week's Board of Education meeting.
The superintendent began hosting the town-hall meetings in the fall of 2011 to engage the community.
The town-hall meetings have no agenda and are driven by questions from residents who attend.
Topics covered at the previous meetings have included the construction of tennis courts at Bernard Middle School, the $6 million auditorium planned to be built on the Mehlville Senior High School campus, tuition-free, full-day kindergarten and technology.
