Safety is always first for Tracy Area Public Schools staff, and the district received some good news that will help make the schools even safer.
TAPS Supt. Chad Anderson reported at Monday’s District No. 2904 School Board meeting that TAPS has received a $500,000 Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant. With the match from the district, the total amount of monies available is $672,796.
“One of the things that we’ll be doing is replacing all of the doors in our school — that’s a big part of it,” Anderson said. “It’s the doors, all the hinges, the door knobs will come off, we’ll have new ADAcompatible handles with locks on the inside of the room.”
Anderson said the latter is an important takeaway since currently, teachers must go out in the hallway to lock their respective doors — not the most efficient scenario during a lockdown situation.
“All of these locks, with the new handles, will be able to be locked on the inside,” he said. “We will be asking for (key) fobs for all classrooms as well.”
The locks, Anderson said, will be universal, so administrators and custodians will have one key that opens every door in the building. Teachers will have a key to access their room, but that same key will not allow them to get into a neighboring teacher’s room.
“That will provide an extra layer of safety,” Anderson said. “I’ll also be looking into magnetic attachments as well, so from my office, if there’s a fire alarm or an intruder, the doors will release and close and all lock.”
The district will be looking at new locks at the elementary school as well — “just a lot of things to update our schools to make them more safe for our students and staff,” Anderson said.
Anderson said he is putting together a Request for Proposal for the new upgrades, as well as one to get all door frames painted.
“I want to thank Tonya (Duscher) and Peggy (Zwach) for getting the process for the grant going,” said Anderson. “They played a very important role in this. I had a lot of people who wrote letters of support. It took a lot of time and effort to get this grant, and it’s pretty exciting.”
Anderson hopes bids will be awarded sometime in March, 2026.
In other business Monday … • The board voted to allow the FFA vending machine be open before and after school and during both lunch hours, as opposed to just before school. The FFA brought in a $6,100 profit last school year, and so far this year, the profit is about $300.
• The board accepted the resignation of head cheer coach Bri Bruder, effective at the end of the 2025-26 fall sports season, and the resignation of Kylie Meyer as a paraprofessional at the elementary school. The board also approved the hiring of Lexi Gervais as a para at TAES.
• The board accepted the following donations: $20 (anonymous) for a TAHS scholarship; $1,500 from Stone Creek Farms and $500 from Minnwest Bank for the FFA; $100 from Daktronics for Lego League; $1,000 from the Tracy Eagles for the softball complex project; $1,255 from the United Way of Southwest Minnesota for student emergencies; and $750 from Prairie View for a Prairie View scholarship.
TAHS 2024 TEST SCORES
