Town Meeting Approves $285K for Improved School Security

Burlington Town Meeting voted to appropriate funds to be used to increase school security during the Wednesday session of the annual May Town Meeting.

The warrant article was presented by Superintendent Eric Conti.

"This warrant article comes from starting point based on the premise that our schools are safe now," Conti said. "After the events in [Newtown] Connecticut last year we began working with the school resource officer and Police Chief Kent. They walked through our schools and made a number of suggestions."

Conti said there was also a good discussion on physical changes that could be made to a couple of the schools to increase safety at School Committee meetings.

Much of the funds will be used to reconfigure the entrances at the Fox Hill and Pine Glen elementary schools.

Conti explained that right now when visitors come to the school they have to be let in with an electronic door lock. However, because of the orientation of the front doors and the office, school employees cannot see who is at the door. The fix will be to move the office around, create a window-wall and a vestibule that will allow employees to see who is looking to be let in.

"In Fox Hill. for instance, we'll put another set of doors in and make it so there is a clear line of sight," Conti said. "Same at Pine Glen."

There are other new security measures in the plans, but Conti said that at the advice of Burlington Police Chief Michael Kent, he would not state them publicly as to not give up their hand.

There were some questions raised by Town Meeting members as to whether the new measures would be effective and justify the cost.

Mildred Nash, Precinct 3, said that doing this in response to the Newtown shootings was a mistake because would-be shooters will just find another way to get into the schools.

"I Think it's a mistake we make in this kind of expense – and in a way the terrorist win," she said. "Newtown seemed secure. What happened there is the guy kicked out the glass. So you can get rid of the glass but what’s next?"

John Cormier, Precinct 6, echoed her sentiments. He said he hoped that people wouldn't think that if Town Meeting members voted against the expense they were avoiding doing something to improve safety for the town's children. He said that in the past Town Meeting approved expenses to bolster security but now those measures are found lacking.

"Now we’re putting more money into this," he said. "To Mildred’s point are we doing the proper things? What if someone goes around the back of the building while the kids are outside? For this amount of money I’m just concerned that we’ll be revising this in 4-5 years and putting more money into it."

Chief Kent said the recommendations were based on lengthy discussions he had with members of his department.

"Sandy Hook brought [school security] to the forefront," he said. "I Sat down with my team and we went down a punch list of what we felt would put Burlington schools in a better place in regards to safety. Can we plan for everything? No, but we can do our best. We need to be able to look in the mirror and say we did what we could to protect our students and our teachers."