SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — Slippery Rock Area School District’s school board may consider hiring a consultant to perform a risk assessment at its four schools, in order to plan for the district’s safety needs.

Before the board’s regular voting meeting Monday evening, Sept. 23, its members met in an educational programming committee, where school safety was a topic of discussion. Alfonso Angelucci, superintendent of the district, said student safety is a top concern, and the district is looking to more prominently utilize random metal detecting of students in all of its schools to further promote safely.

The meeting comes after the school district closed out of an “abundance of caution” Sept. 12, when online messages implicated schools in the region in threats. Angelucci told the school board that the district received a letter from the district attorney offering support following the potential threat.

Assistant superintendent Susan Miller said at the meeting that the administrators discussed potentially hiring a new armed security guard, which would be an additional measure of safety alongside the consultant process.

“What that consultant will do is then give us recommendations in terms of what exactly we need to do in terms of physical safety,” she said. “Get someone with some expertise to look at all four buildings, give us recommendations and prioritize what we need to do.”

Angelucci also said at the meeting that the district may make some cuts to student field trips because of a dwindling number of available bus drivers. He said field trips made during school hours would be more plausible than those taking place after hours.

“We’re OK on our day-to-day operations; where we’re seeing it now is in our extracurriculars, field trips, sporting events, things like that where we’re scraping by,” Angelucci said.

The school board voted Monday to finance a bond of $10 million to fund part of the district’s high school construction project.

The board heard from Anthony Ditka, bond counsel with Dinsmore & Shohl, about financing options for the bond, which would be callable after five years to refinance. This will be the second $10 million bond the district is taking out for the construction project, which is estimated to cost $26 million.

Construction has begun on an updated cafeteria and new secure building entrance at the high school, and the project is expected to extend through the summers of 2025 and 2026.

Paul Cessar, the district’s finance manager, said the district is taking out three bonds to pay for the project in an effort to fund the construction efficiently.