by David Kent | staff writer
As announced last school year, there is a new security fence surrounding the school.
“The fence’s are a security measure that the district is putting in place at all secondary campuses, all high schools should have all of the fencing up by the first day of this school year,” assistant principal Steve Berg said. “We are still trying to get a few things taken care of, and then they are going to start work on the middle schools, and then eventually work on all of the elementary schools as well.”
Students who arrive after school has started will be required to sign in. Students who need access must show their school ID at the gate.
“There is a buzz-in system so students that arrive after first period starts will need to show an ID to get buzzed in to the gate in the back,” Berg said.
The new security fence surrounds the back half of the school
“It basically goes from the bus stop, courtyard area, to the gym, so nobody can freely walk into the courtyard. It does secure the end of the gym building on the backside and the ROTC building on the backside as well,” Berg said. ”So it encompasses our whole campus, there is either a perimeter fence or a perimeter wall [which] will keep visitors from freely walking in, and it does go around the ROTC building.”
NEISD proposed the security fence in an effort to continue to shore up campus safety.
“I’m interested [in future security measures] because my kids go to Comal and Comal is making all secondary kids, middle school and high school wear ID badges so I’m interested in seeing how that goes,” Berg said. “I have some friends that are Assistant Principals at Smithson Valley so I’m just interested to see how it goes with 3,000 kids. So I don’t know if our district will ever go to that, but that is something that will probably be considered”
The new fence will increase current security measures that include a front door buzzer system and clear backpacks.
“I just think that it is a really good measure, to hopefully help kids get here a little bit quicker on time so that they don’t need to mess with getting buzzed in,” Berg said. “It also helps people to keep our campus a little safer in the evening as well just people don’t walk in later at night. I think it’s been a good measure and hopefully everybody will continue to do what they need to do.”
