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School Safety Newsletter
School Safety Question #1
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NEW MAIN ENTRANCE SECURITY FEATURES
What are the new security features in the main entrances of the schools and how will they affect visitors, students, and staff members?
All school entrances are now equipped with vestibules and multi-tiered entrance procedures.
The biggest change for staff and students is the way they will enter/exit the office during the school day.
When inside the school, students and staff enter the main office through the interior hallway door. However, to re-enter the school hallway, one must be buzzed back in (via a door release button) or use a fob.
Therefore, it is important that all staff carry their key fobs so they can independently let themselves back into the school hallway.
Please email Carol White, Director of Buildings and Grounds, if you need a key fob or if yours is not working properly.
In terms of visitor management,
we have the following security features:
- Natural surveillance: Due to the installation of additional windows in almost all of our front offices, we now have greater visibility of entrances and front walkways.
- Window reinforcement: Front entrance doors, windows and exchange windows are equipped with impact resistant protection film, which makes them extremely difficult to penetrate.
- Single Point of Entry: All visitors and parents of our students need to enter through the main entrances.
- Video intercom system:We still have our call box and video intercom system outside the school so our personnel can observe and gather information on a visitor before he/she enters the school.
- Transaction window: New transaction windows allow for a credential exchange process before the visitor has physical access to office staff.
- Visitor processing software:One part of vetting visitors, involves running their state-issued ID through a 50-state sex offender list. The software also collects and maintains data on visitors and allows for custom alerts to be set up.
- Multi-layered visitor access: After visitors are cleared through our database, they are issued a printed badge with their name, photo, date, and time. Once they have their badges, they enter the school through the main office (except at DPMW, where they enter the hallway from inside the welcome center).
These measures, along with your vigilance, help create a safer environment for all of us.
A special thank you goes out to all of the people involved in making these changes happen in such a short period of time!
Thank you for your efforts in keeping our school community as safe as possible.
Sincerely,
Ingrid Wiemer -Executive Director of Student Services
View previous issues of our newsletter here.
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