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Below the overview of the district are links to KBIA's coverage of Columbia 93 district schools, updated as more stories are published. Columbia 93 at a glanceThe Columbia 93 school district currently includes 32 different schools. In 2014, the district had a k-12 enrollment of 17,204 students, which is 2% of the total k-12 enrollment for the state. Enrollment has been slightly increasing in recent years, 2% since 2011. While a small percent, that amounts to almost 400 more students. There have also been major re-drawing of attendance areas with the addition of Battle High School. Middle school attendance areas shape high school boundaries 00000178-cc7d-da8b-a77d-ec7d2f9e0000The changes have affected all schools in the district, including causing high school attendance to increase and overcrowding at one middle school at least.

New school board policy allows concealed firearms for security purposes

gun
Drab Mayko
/
FLICKR

The Columbia Public School board approved a policy last night that allows Ron White and Ken Gregory, the director and assistant director of safety and security, to carry concealed firearms while on school grounds.

The council voted five to two in favor of the new policy. They initially approved the first reading of the policy in a school board meeting in early November.

Columbia School Board Member Paul Cushing says the new ruling will improve security because during emergency situations, White and Gregory are quicker to arrive.

“John White and his assistant Ken often times respond to schools before law enforcement gets there and if they didn’t have a firearm, and there was an armed intruder, it could be very difficult for them to be effective in their job,” Cushing said.

According to the school board, the superintendent will decide on whether or not to allow the director or assistant director to carry a firearm on a case by case basis after evaluating each candidate’s qualifications, training and expertise.  The policy requires candidates to be licensed to carry a firearm by the State of Missouri and by the federal government. Additionally, the candidates must have a minimum twenty four hours of firearms training each year.

The Columbia School Board attempted to pass a similar policy last year, but was unable to generate the amount of votes required.

“I think that some of the challenges last year might have been policy and the way that it was written, but this year they were able to craft a policy that made sense and made people more comfortable with it,” Cushing said.

Recent increases in school violence led the school board to consider passing the policy as a precautionary act.

“We have four Columbia police officers as school resources in our three high schools, but budget constraints prohibit us from having more,” Cushing said.

Even if the director and assistant director meet the requirements, the superintendent and the school board president reserves the right to deny them access to carry a firearm.

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