Security upgrades are coming to East Providence High School and St. Mary Academy - Bay View, courtesy of federal grant money secured by the East Providence Police Department.

The good news came over the course of two meetings of the East Providence City Council.

First, during their meeting on Aug. 11, East Providence Police Chief Michael Rapoza informed the council that the department had been awarded roughly $235,000 in money from a COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) grant, which is administered by the United States Department of Justice.

The item on the agenda that day was requesting the council to approve the release of $54,443.10 from the grant for St. Mary Academy - Bay View for security upgrades to doors throughout the school facility. Bay View would contribute $21,151.82 in matching funds.

“We have a very close relationship with all of our private schools,” Rapoza told the council. “They reached out about some funding to get some security increases and improvements in their school. This includes digital and keycard access systems, updates to their facilities, five doors among four buildings. Obviously, the school is extremely grateful for our relationship and the federal funds that were awarded after a pretty extensive process of the grant moving forward.”

Ward 3 Councilman Frank Fogarty, who put forth the resolution to approve the grant funding, was all in favor of the project; as were the other members of the council, who voted unanimously in approval.

“The gain is the security of those students attending and the residents around,” Fogarty said. “In my opinion it’s a no-brainer for that whole area and I appreciate the efforts of the police department.”

East Providence High School upgrades

A few weeks later at the Sept. 1 meeting of the council, Chief Rapoza was back with three separate requests for releases of the grant funds, this time to benefit East Providence High School.

The resolutions each authorized the release of funding for a different safety/security improvement for the high school, with matching funds provided by the school department. Although these are school-related projects, the city council had authority over the release of the funds used to finance them because the police department secured the grant.

One allotment of grant funding will go to Won-Door Corporation in the amount of $82,500 from the COPS grant and $27,500 from the school department for security door upgrades at the school. Another will go to Synet in the amount of $60,450 from the COPS grant and $23,355 from the school department. The third allotment will to to Challenge Electronics, Inc. in the amount of $37,403.55 from the grant, and $12,831.45 from the school department.

“There were some security door upgrades, there was camera upgrades, a lot of wiring and updating some of the camera needs,” Rapoza said of the specific upgrades provided by the three companies. “And then two-way radios that will be district-wide; about 175 radios that we use throughout the entire school department.”

The council once again expressed appreciation for the projects, and all three resolutions were passed unanimously.
“Another good use of some federal funds that can only help school security, especially at this time of year,” said Council President Bob Rodericks.