WeTip, a new school safety feature, will be in place for Pierce County Schools beginning July 1.
The Board of Education approved purchasing WeTip from Centegix at their regular monthly work session Thursday morning.
Centegix is already the vendor for the school system’s emergency badge alert system.
The school system will pay a one-time implementation fee of $1,194 and then will pay an annual fee of $3,500.
The Georgia General Assembly passed and Governor Kemp signed into law a school safety act in 2025 that requires all systems have this safety feature in place by July 1 of this year.
WeTip is an anonymous reporting program for people to report harmful activity that occurs on school property or relates to a student or school personnel.
The product will be available 24 hours per day, seven days per week via a toll-free phone number, phone app and web link. It will connect to the Pierce County 911 Center to report emergency tips. WeTip can also forward the tips to school and district officials.
Funding will come from the school system’s general fund.
While board members agreed school safety is a top priority, Chairman Duward Boatright pointed out the cost is borne by the local school district.
“We want to keep our kids safe,” he said. “But, the state has implemented this requirement, but didn’t provide any way to fund it.”
