“Closed Campus” will get a whole new meaning at L/W School

It may come as late as the fall of 2007, but once plans announced at the Lake of the Woods School Board meeting Monday (Nov. 20) night come to fruition, “closed campus” will have an entirely new meaning.
Usually, “closed campus” means that students are restricted to school grounds during the school day. Come next school year, though, it would mean that they will literally be locked into the school building.
School doors would be locked once students arrive, and visitors wouldn’t have open access to the school until after classes are dismissed at the end of the school day.
“This is going to change the way people go in and out of the building,” Superintendent of Schools Connie Nelson told the Board.
The security move would be in effect only during the school day, Nelson said, “from the time buses drop off the kids to the end of the school day.”
A new wave of security consciousness has hit school administrators in the wake of a number of school shootings over the last few months, and a locked door policy is becoming common, Nelson said.
“There are already some schools doing it (going to a locked door policy),” she said. “Clearbrook-Gonvick says it works very well.”
Visitors could get into the school through one of two entrances, one at the elementary school office and the other at the main door. A closed-circuit camera system would allow visitors to get in touch with school secretaries, and those secretaries would control access to the school. School staff would be given special cards that would bypass the security system.
The main pool entrance would remain open, Nelson said, since many area people use the pool during the day. Doors between the pool addition and the rest of the school would be locked, though.
Nelson said that school administrators did a four-day survey of people coming to the school this fall, and between 50 and 60 people other than staff and students come to the school on an average day.
The system would be shut down during musical concerts and “party days”.
Equipment needed for the system must still be ordered and installed, and Nelson said that it isn’t going to happen right away. She estimated that it could be next summer before necessary cameras and lock systems can be installed.
Equipment would be paid for by a special school safety levy, and its cost would not be an expense for the school’s beleaguered general fund.
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In other business at a brief meeting Monday night, the Board:
• Hired Brandon Foldoe as custodian.
• Agreed to pay $48,000 arena rental for 2007. That is up $3,050 from the $45,950 that the school pays this year.
• Agreed to a one month delay in high school Principal Mark Nohner’s Systems Accountability report but agreed to have it posted on the school web site as soon as feasible.
• Was told by Nelson that she planned a presentation of plans to repair the roof over the school.
• Discussed without action a training session for new board members and an engineering awareness program planned for junior high school students.
• Paid the bills.
• Adjourned at 7:15 p.m. after a 6:30 start.