St. Charles School District 303 looking to install new security system for district’s buildings

St. Charles School District 303 is looking at installing a modern access control system that will provide greater security for the district’s buildings along with providing more flexibility.

The issue was discussed during the school board’s Business Services Committee meeting Nov. 28. John Pahlman, the district’s assistant superintendent of operations, told school board members that access control provides secure access to buildings for staff while eliminating distribution of most physical keys.

“Our current electronic keypad locks require a rather labor intensive process to change access codes,” he said. “Currently, it takes one of our maintenance staff to physically go and touch each one of the 170 locks if we need to do a code change or some kind of upgrade.”

It is estimated to cost $1.2 million to implement such a system districtwide.

“Access control equipment is more readily available than many other project supply chains and could be implemented over summer 2023,” Pahlman said.

A new system would provide specific access credentials to each staff member via a proximity card, Pahlman said. The card is the size of a credit card, he said.

“This access can be easily administered to allow the use of specific doors and at specific times,” he said. “We can program individual schedules to allow people access when we want them in the buildings and also when we don’t.”

The plan will include card access at each of the exterior and interior vestibule doors where keypad locks exist, he said.

School board member Becky McCabe wondered if teachers would be part of the planning process to install the new system.

“Having been an elementary teacher, I would go in and work on the weekends instead of working until 9 p.m.,” McCabe said. “High school teachers don’t have the same kind of needs to get into the building as elementary teachers. So are teachers a part of your planning? Do you have a voice of the user involved in the planning?”

Pahlman said the process could be opened to everyone.

“I think we would start at the cabinet level with the folks that our principals report to and get the input as a group coming in as we look at options,” he said. “What we’re looking at is putting in the infrastructure. We can always change and adjust. That’s the nice part about the software. We can change and adjust those schedules as we need to. But again, this is mostly about the infrastructure and getting those tools in place so we can have those discussions.”

School board member Ed McNally had a similar concern.

“I am a high school teacher who does go in on weekends often,” McNally said.