District begins building anterooms in Rockville Centre schools to bolster security

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The entrances of Rockville Centre’s seven schools will look a bit different when students and visitors return to the buildings in September, as the district last week began construction to enhance security.

Anterooms, or spaces that act as a buffer zone before visitors can enter the rest of the building, were proposed in the district’s schools in February, exactly two weeks after a gunman opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., killing 17 people and injuring 14. Schools Superintendent Dr. William Johnson said at the time that the incident accelerated the district to take action on security enhancements.

In the room, guests will be asked to pass over identification to receive a visitor pass, according to Robert Bartels, assistant superintendent for business and personnel. Once they are cleared, they will be allowed to proceed to their destination.

“Everybody on the board was in agreement that we needed to do something, and we made certain allocations within the budget to take care of a lot of these security concerns,” Bartels said. “It’s important for student and staff safety and I think we’re going to be going to great lengths to improve that this year.”

At Wilson, Watson, Covert and Riverside elementary schools, a second set of doors will be built between existing doors and the rest of the building to create a vestibule, according to drawn plans.

In South Side Middle School’s lobby last week, a room was being built inside the left entrance doors. At the high school, a wall sectioning off one of the entrances — to serve as the anteroom — will separate where staff and students come in from where visitors enter.

The temporary anteroom installed in April at Hewitt Elementary School will remain at its current location, where it borders the library, according to plans, but will be modified and include a bank teller-type window. A similar kind of transaction window is also planned for Watson Elementary School.

New windows and doors will be bullet-resistant.

Bartels has said that security enhancements discussed at that February meeting would fall under a section of the budget for capital improvements and repairs, which normally runs about $800,000. He increased that line to $1.5 million in this year’s budget to make room for the measures.

“It’s another structure, it’s another layer that enables us to ensure both the families and the children that the children when they come to us are going to be safe during the school day,” Johnson said of the rooms. “It’s really all about the safety of our children.”