Community Corner

Manchester Schools To Review Security

District will inspect buildings, and look into establishing a "swipe-card" entry system

In the wake of the Newtown, Conn. shooting massacre, the Manchester School District will review whether its infrastructure and security system are keeping students and faculty completely safe.

David Trethaway, Manchester's superintendent of schools, said the district and the Manchester Police Department will soon work together in inspecting the schools to determine their safety, among other tasks.

"We'll be walking the schools," Trethaway told the Board of Education during its Wednesday evening meeting.

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School officials assured residents that they believe the district already operates in a very safe manner and "everybody has been very attentive to security issues," Trethaway said.

But the superintendent said the district will consider two possible measures that could help beef up an already reliable system:

Find out what's happening in Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Meeting with an outside security company to discuss increasing the surveillance of the district's facilities; and
  • Replacing the "buzzing-in" system of entry with a procedure that would require some to swipe cards as a way to gain access to buildings.

"Buzzing-in is taxing our system," said Trethaway, noting the procedure school secretaries and officials currently follow to allow some employees and others to enter school buildings.

Manchester Board of Education President Donald Webster said this is not the first time the district has addressed security issues. But the Newtown massacre that left 20 school children and 6 adults dead, the board acknowledged, has given school security renewed focus.

"We're hoping to pick up information we otherwise didn't think about," Webster said.


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