By Carmen Rodgers
Elmore/Autauga News
Elected and appointed officials from the city, county and state levels gathered for the Tri-Government Meeting at the Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce Monday. At this meeting, representatives from each level of government offered general information and updates.
Autauga County Board of Education Superintendent Tim Tidmore was present to give a school system update. Following the update, Prattville Councilman Marcus Jackson asked that everyone from the city to the state level need to work together to ensure student safety.
“As far as projected revenues, we are ranked 133 out of 138,” Tidmore said. “That does include some charter schools.”
“We do very well with what we have,” he said. “What we are doing now, think about what we could do if we had proper funding. The elephant in the room is security concerns,” Tidmore said.
After a weapon was found recently at Prattville Jr High and Prattville High School, alarm bells have sounded for many parents in Autauga County. At both schools it was a student who reported the weapon to authorities.
“In both of these cases, kids did what they were told to do, they saw something and said something,”
Tidmore said. Currently the Board is reevaluating the system’s safety protocols.
“Right now, I think it’s safe to say anything is on the table,” he said.
Tidmore pointed out that security upgrades can be very costly, giving an example of the Huntsville City School System which recently paid $2.9 million for security upgrades. And aging facilities only makes the issue more difficult to correct.
“It’s hard to secure a building that is 80-years-old. We are currently looking at some fencing options, attractive fencing options,” he said.
“I’m not going to say that it’s everywhere because the most important thing is that it is here. We do have drugs, we have gangs,” he said. “With the Sheriff’s Department and the Police Department we are working on that.”.
Tidmore went on to address the state of the school system.
Prattville Councilmember Marcus Jackson then asked Tidmore how much it would cost to install metal detectors in the system’s schools.
According to Tidmore, the cost ranges from $3,000-$20,000 per machine.
“Depending on bells and whistles and what you want them to do,” he said.
“I called the mayor,” Jackson said. “We have an education meeting coming up soon, and I told him I would like for us to purchase all of them, because that’s going to help the SROs (school resource officers). That would help them tremendously if we were to use the education money for you guys.”
Jackson said he would like to help the school Board fund clear bookbags for students in Autauga County as well.
“I know there was a question about clear bags and my thought process on that is the City (of Prattville) should purchase the bags for everyone instead of just a select group because that’s what the funds are for, and that money belongs to the taxpayers. And if that’s what the taxpayers want, I think that’s what we should do,” Jackson said.
Jackson also asked lawmakers about creating laws that better hold parents responsible for not properly treating their child’s mental health conditions. Often children with these diagnoses can display aggressive behaviors towards others.
“We have kids that come through, especially in the alternative school, and the child may be bi-polar, schizophrenic, or another diagnosis and the parents refuse to give them medicine,” Jackson said.
Jackson applauded the new Board and Tidmore in their attempts to be progressive rather than reactive.
“Tidmore, I know you catch a lot of flack, but these issues are real.”
“We’ve talked about these issues for the past 10-years. And a lot of people have turned their heads. These issues are real, and I think we need to take it seriously before somebody’s child, some of the employees, gets seriously hurt.”
Jackson works for the alternative school, and said he sees firsthand what happens on a daily basis.
Jackson then explained that it would take a collaborative effort on every level of government to properly fund the schools to make the necessary changes to ensure student safety.
“We need to get behind the superintendent and the school board and do whatever it takes to make whatever they need, we need to make it happen,” he said.
It is possible this issue could be addressed at a future Prattville City Council meeting.
