Flood damage from Tropical Storm Harvey last year is giving the Orangefield school district a chance to build new secure entrances into its campuses.
Superintendent Dr. Stephen Patterson said the elementary, junior high, and high school will have “hardened” entrances to keep visitors out of offices and classrooms until they have been checked.
The plans coordinate with the school marshal plan the Orangefield school board approved in the spring. The district now has employees who have completed law enforcement training, including the psychological testing, to be armed on campuses. Patterson said they train often.
The secure entrances and school marshals are some of the suggestions made by Governor Greg Abbot in the School and Firearms Safety Action Plan made after the fatal school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Galveston County.
However, Patterson pointed out the suggestions come without state money to implement them. Because of Harvey flood damage, the Orangefield school board decided to add security changes into the rebuilding. He said FEMA is paying for 90 percent of the rebuilding of the pre-existing buildings. At this time, the repairs are only 20 percent complete.
Monday, Patterson showed off the skeleton of the future secure vestibule into the high school. The door will be locked and visitors, including parents, must call a secretary before entering. The secretary will then buzz the person into the vestibule area. The area is closed to offices and hallways to classrooms.
“Now, we’ll have eyes on them in the front of the building,” he said.
Then the visitor will be checked before allowed into offices. Patterson said the district has been using, and will continue to use, the Raptor Program to scan driver’s licenses. A computer scan lets school personnel know if the person is a registered sex offender or has criminal warrants issued against them.
He said the offices for the campus school nurses will be by the entrance vestibules. That way, a nurse can walk a sick child to the parent without the parent having to enter the classroom area.
The hardened vestibules will be open to students when school starts and ends. Principals will stand by the entrance doors to watch students enter.
Other doors will be automatically locked and can be opened only with a card reader
The vestibules are part of reconfiguring the existing buildings. The FEMA money is to restore the buildings, not for additions. “This is an approach to new changes to the buildings that are not costing the local taxpayers,” he said.
The changes to buildings will include tile on walls and new, no-wax floors. Patterson said the flooring will save the district money and the maintenance department man hours because the time spend during summers waxing the floors.
Even though the school buildings are not complete, students are in portable buildings and not having to be in rooms separated by blue tarps.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Galveston this summer brought four portable buildings configured into one large building. It is now used for technology classes with computer labs. Patterson said it will later be put to use as a fine arts building including drama.
Also, the Dell Foundation donated 18 portable buildings. The district now owns them for future use.
The district this year has about 1,900 students, up from last year. Patterson said estimates are 300 of the students are still not back in their Harvey-damaged homes.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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