Eric Nethercutt shows KTA principal Dr. Marlanne Lescher newly improved security modifications.
Students in the Kyrene School District returned to class this month and noticed things had changed a bit from when they began their summer break.
Seven Kyrene schools had their lobbies remodeled, for one thing. All Kyrene school offices have now been upgraded in an effort that began last summer with funding from the 2010 capital bond election. Schools now have two lobbies: one for students and one for visitors. Access to the rest of the school is now through a “buzzable door” controlled by office staff.
“People see our schools are closed in the summer and think that nothing’s happening, but that’s the furthest thing from the truth,” said Nancy Dudenhoefer, assistant director of community relations for the district.
“While everyone may get to take a one-week vacation, the seven weeks that our schools are not having kids in them, many other things are going on.”
Eric Nethercutt, director of transportation and facilities for the district, said that Kyrene’s standing security committee is always looking at ways to improve safety.
“Security is more of a journey than a destination. After the Sandy Hook tragedy, we decided to really look deeply at our schools,” Nethercutt said.
The Sandy Hook incident of December 2012 was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
In an incident that grabbed worldwide headlines, a lone shooter entered an elementary school in Connecticut and took the lives of 20 kindergarteners and six adult staff members.
“We worked with Phoenix Homeland Defense Bureau and one of the recommendations they made was, in the spirit of continuing to increase security at already secure schools, that we take a look at our front offices,” Nethercutt said.
For over a year, the security committee worked with architects and construction experts to come up with a design. The goal was to add a layer of security but still maintain a warm and inviting atmosphere for students.
In the past, a parent, vendor or visitor could check in at the front desk, and at their discretion could walk to any door in the school.
The remodeling in the Kyrene district means there is now a separate, secure visitors’ lobby at each school.
Parents, vendors and visitors must check in at the front counter with staff who will buzz them through a door after they are approved for entry. Exterior doors have a scanner pad and require a badge to open. There are still one or two doors at each school that are keyed, Nethercutt said.
With some 18,000 students in the Kyrene school district — and thus about 36,000 parents — Nethercutt allowed that “the human condition leads to a lot of things going on in families.
One thing that does impact at times is custody battle. That’s not the reason we did this, but it adds up to many reasons why we felt the need to add that extra layer of security and have a little bit more control over the front office.”
If a parent involved in a custody battle comes to the school to pick up a child, staff will check to see if he or she is authorized to do so.
“It’s an awkward conversation but our front office staff would say, ‘No, you’re not allowed.’ In the past they may have just gone ahead and walked in the school anyway.
They can’t do that because the front offices are secure and no one will let them into the hallway,” Nethercutt said.
Other security enhancements at Kyrene schools include modification of fencing at some schools, installation of intrusion alarms and video surveillance and modifying buildings so that all classrooms that opened to the outside now open to an internal corridor.
