The Clear Creek ISD board of trustees on Monday approved spending nearly $3 million to address school safety concerns.

The board approved hiring 15 additional liaison officers and 15 additional student-support counselors, which were two of several recommendations the Clear Creek ISD Safety Committee made to the board to address school safety concerns after the Santa Fe shooting in May that claimed 10 lives.

Buying several police vehicles and upgrading the building automation control system at Clear Path Alternative School also made up the $2.9 million worth of recommendations the board approved. Other measures the board approved include enhancing training and prevention techniques, improving security systems, updating policies and procedures and more.

The committee did not recommend installing metal detectors at schools, citing a study that showed the Transportation Security Administration failed 70 percent of the time to find contraband using metal detectors.

If professionals failed to find weapons that much, teachers would fail much more, making metal detectors pointless, committee co-Chairman Richard Rennison said.

“It’s an illusion of safety,” board member Chris Reed said.

“We hire our teachers and our staff to educate our students, not to run metal detectors,” board President Page Rander said.

Several residents spoke during the meeting in favor of metal detectors. A couple said the committee’s conclusion that there can be up to 45-minute waits for students lining up to go through metal detectors was wrong.

“Even if it takes 15 minutes to go through, you create a target-rich environment for those who want to do harm,” Rennison said. “That’s very concerning.”

The committee also did not recommend making students use clear backpacks or implementing a marshal or guardian plan. Students can still hide weapons in clear backpacks, and the committee felt state regulations do not provide for the appropriate vetting, psychological examination or training of guardians or marshals, officials said.

The committee is made up of parents, students, staff, law enforcement officers, mental health experts and religious leaders who met several times throughout June and July to come up with the recommendations. Several board members complimented the committee for its hard work.