Governor Mike DeWine is moving his STRONG Ohio plan forward with the formation of a working group.
The Ohio School Safety Working Group has been created and Bath Township Fire Chief Joe Kitchen has been appointed to the group. This task force is made up of representatives from school employees, first responders, state employees, and more. Kitchen will represent the Ohio Fire Chiefs' Association. DeWine will have the group evaluate current school safety issues and report back to the Ohio School Safety Center. Kitchen says he's honored to be appointed and will work on the public safety sub-committee.
"One of the things that I'm going to advocate for is additional funding for our local schools to be able to implement programs," said Kitchen. "Whether it's additional building security, whether it's personnel, whether it's psychological services. The schools that I talked to want to do things, but they don't have the funding. So that's one of the things I'm going to work on."
Also from our area, Dan Grothause of St. Marys City Schools has also been named to the working group.
