Schools get safety-centered facelift

Many visitors to Hahnville High School know that it is easy to miss the front office and go wandering into the school.

The school district hopes that this problem is solved now with a new entryway that was built over the summer.

A new entrance was also constructed at A. A. Songy Kindergarten Center in Luling.

The entrances should make the schools more secure and welcoming for incoming students, teachers and visitors. They include large glass panels so that office employees can identify visitors well before they enter the school. Vestibules were also placed to block visitors from entering without being noticed.

John Rome, administrator of physical plant services for the school district, said that the entrances were done after recommendations from safety audits that the district has done.

“Yearly, we do an internal safe schools audit, and both (of the schools) came up during those audits as needing to have a more secure entryway,” Rome said.

Safer entrances were also suggested during a Safe Havens International external safety audit that was done in April 2009.

The new entrance at Hahnville cost the school district about $65,000 and the A. A. Songy entrance cost about $49,000, according to Rome.

Rome said that the entrances have many benefits, including keeping students as safe as possible while learning.

“For one, it’s a secure, welcoming environment in the front of the school and allows us to better screen and great visitors before they approach,” Rome said. “At both schools, people could access the buildings without being noticed by front office personnel. Now the glass and the way the vestibule is set up makes it easy for office staff to see approaching visitors, greet them and make sure they sign in.”

 

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