This article originally appeared in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, and it was written by Kristine Galloway. To view the original article, click here.
CHEYENNE, WY – Parents visiting Cheyennes McCormick Junior High and Bain Elementary during the next two weeks are going to find procedures quite different in the schools offices.
The two schools are piloting a new visitor management system Laramie County School District 1 will install in all schools by this fall.
Dave Bartlett, LCSD1 assistant superintendent of support operations, said, To get a visitors badge and gain access beyond the office, a parent would provide a state-issued ID, and they scan it, and then it prints out a badge so staff will know that person has been checked in.
He added, Theres a brief check to make sure that person is OK to be in the building, and then we’ve got documentation that the person was there.
Bartlett said the district is installing the system, from Raptor Technologies, to provide better safety for staff and students.
We want to make sure that if we’re allowing a visitor to come into the building that a student is being released to the right custodial parent and that were not allowing somebody into the building that may be on a sexual registry somewhere, Bartlett said.
Bartlett told the LCSD1 Board of Trustees earlier this month that schools still would use a pen and paper sign-in for larger events.
District administrators chose to install the system at McCormick Junior High and Bain Elementary this spring to see how well the system works, as well as how staff and visitors respond to the system, Bartlett said.
Bain will have one scanner, but McCormick will have a scanner and a kiosk.
Bartlett said the next two weeks will be a time of trial and error, and parents will receive more detailed information about what the process will look like during registration and open house in August.
Nancy Ross, emergency response and crisis specialist for School District 27J in Colorado, said every school in her district uses Raptor Technologies visitor management system. She said they installed it in all schools following the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.
Ross said school staff members like the system because it helps them more easily identify who has permission to be in the building and screens those who should not.
Regarding parents opinions, she said, I think you have parents feeling that its great because its additional security, and certainly after the Sandy Hook incident, people were looking to see more security at schools.
She added, If people don’t have a proper ID, then maybe they’re not as happy with it. But we have written procedures for how to handle that.
Bartlett said, When you’re talking safety and security and you’re talking convenience, those two oftentimes don’t mesh, but we will always lean on the conservative side toward security and safety.
The visitor management system installation is a response to the Legislature providing additional funding to increase the safety and security of schools in Wyoming, Bartlett said. As a result, nearly every school across the state will have a similar system, though it may not be the same vendor.
The LCSD1 Board of Trustees voted May 2 to approve an $89,000 contract with Raptor Technologies to provide the service. Bartlett said the hardware for the system will be an additional cost.
