Whinall Set to Spend $100,000 to Secure High School

The Whitnall School District is prepared to spend more than $100,000 to improve school safety at Whitnall High School.

That’s the price tag to make the main entrance to the school far more secure than it is now. Currently, someone wishing to enter the building must be buzzed in, but once inside the school, that person can head in many different directions.

“Right now, you do have to get buzzed in through the outer doors, but you don’t know what the person wants and why they’re there,” Whitnall Superintendent Lowell Holtz said. “Once they are in, they can go through as many as six to eight different doors without even talking to someone in the high school office.

“This funnels them into the sign-in room. It’s very important.”

The current configuration of the entrance was designed in 1999 during renovation of the high school, but in the 14 years since, the landscape of school safety has changed considerably.

“In today’s world, security should always be right up there,” Holtz said. “And it will be one of the more secure entrances in not only the district but the entire area.”

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Holtz said Whitnall School Board members were all for the proposal presented at Monday’s meeting. But board members wanted the plans to be vetted by the finance committee before approving it. Holtz said he hoped the project would be approved in an upcoming meeting so construction could be completed by the start of the 2013-14 school year.

The estimated cost for the upgrades is approximately $102,700.