The school district has hired a consultant to evaluate the Lincoln School’s security and is asking parents and staff for their views on current and potential future security measures.
The Lincoln Public Schools’ Safety and Security Committee, which meets monthly, recommended the security audit, the first in Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall’s four-year tenure in Lincoln, although the graffiti incident outside the Brooks entrance in March was a contributing factor. “This is a good time for us to have an independent audit to give us some feedback beyond our own inspections,” she said.
David Cullen of Intelligence Security International was on campus last week looking at the buildings, interviewing staff members, and reviewing security procedures, including Internet access.
School doors are now locked during school hours between morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up, and all visitors must push a buzzer to be allowed inside. Security cameras outside the Smith and Brooks entrances allow secretaries to see visitors on a monitor and speak with them through an intercom to determine whether to allow entry, though the cameras do not make recordings.
An online poll, which is open until June 30, asks parents and staff for their opinions on locking school doors, surveillance cameras, and visitor check-in and monitoring.
The consultant’s report will be presented to the administration and School Committee in the fall, although McFall said the committee would probably go to executive session for its discussion. The inspection, which cost about $7,500, was funded as part of an earlier Town Meeting appropriation that paid for the current cameras and security buzzers.
Security is mainly common sense. It seems very high, $7,500, to ask someone to check everything out.