While we were enjoying our holiday break, both the keys and locks on every door in the high school were changed. But why the change, and why now?
Principal Timothy Dadich said this change was for security reasons. “Last year, after the bomb threats, the state police came through to do an analysis of the district as it hadn’t been done in a while,” Dadich told our reporters. With all the bomb threat drama last year, Dadich said the police were the ones that suggested the change.
Since the bomb threats happened so long ago, many wondered why the school waited until almost halfway through this school year to do anything about it. There are actually many valid reasons for the wait. Although it may seem simple, changing all the locks in both the middle school and high school is a very long process. Following the bomb threats, a change was needed.
Beginning last school year, plans for safety precautions that would be better for the overall security of students were made. These plans were not only for the lock change, but they also included moving trash cans further away from doors and trimming hedges and other foliage to help alleviate the chances of something being concealed around the building’s perimeter.
Switching keys and locks for every door in two schools is not an easy task. There were a lot of decisions that had to be made going into this project. First, a budget had to be set, keeping the new primary school to be built in mind. The school district put out bids to different companies, got bids back and eventually found the right place to do this big job.
Once that was all settled, there came the time to decide who would need what keys. Some teachers had keys for rooms they didn’t necessarily need access to, and there were even some “A” keys that ended up with the wrong people for one reason or another. Dadich mentioned how it was a very time-consuming process, considering each individual in the school and what rooms they absolutely needed keys to. There was also some discussion of what to do about keys for substitute teachers.
That being said, not only did launching the project take time, but actually changing out the locks and having new keys made and filed was time consuming as well. The lock change began right before winter break and took a week to complete. Even when students returned to school on Jan. 2, people from the company were still in the high school double-checking their work and making sure everything functioned properly.