Oregon-Davis Elementary School’s new secure entrance is almost complete. Once visitors enter the building, a set of doors restricts access to each hallway, forcing them to check in at the main office. Principal Bill Bennett says the school was able to make the upgrades thanks to a Secured School Safety matching grant from the state.
“So whenever we have visitors coming into the school, in the past, they would be buzzed into the school,” Bennett explains. “However, they would kind of have free reign to go in different hallways and different directions if they wanted to. So as part of the grant, we looked at putting new doors in each hallway, so anybody visiting the school has to check in at the office. That way, we can greet them, find out what they need, see if we can help them get where they need to go.”
Bennett says the grant funding was tied into O-D’s school resources officer. “Our match for this project that’s costing around, roughly, $30,000, so then our participating match is for our school resource officer,” he says. “It’s a great program because the school resource officer is something that we’ve spent a lot of time and effort to get established, so we were already doing it. So this is kind of icing on the cake.”
While the doors are currently in place, Bennett says they still have to be wired in, making sure they’re handicap accessible, and installing a key fob system for staff access.
