Recently installed technology at the Hollister public school district is offering more secure access and protection for its roughly 1,400 students and over 220 employees.
The new card access readers now available at each of the city’s schools comes amid growing concern nationwide about student safety, according to Assistant Superintendent for District Operations Sean Woods.
“With different incidents throughout the country, and the frequency of those incidents, I just don’t think you can put a price tag on safety,” said Woods.
And the upgrades came at a bargain, thanks to a donation from European company Nedap Identification Systems, which has an office in Branson. Springfield-based Federal Protection provided the installation, which Woods said cost the district under $15,000.
“The two of them came to us and said ‘hey we’d like to try something out and see if it works.’ What that was was proximity locks and mag locks and cameras on all of our doors.”
With the proximity card reader, authorized personnel can only enter Hollister school district buildings by swiping their identification card. The reader also keeps a record of who enters the building and how long the doors remain open. If a door is open for more than 30 seconds, the school’s administration is alerted, according to Woods.
Woods said the upgrades were operational prior to the 2015-2016 academic year.
He adds that the school district has received positive feedback from faculty and staff regarding the new security system, and, more importantly, from parents.
“I haven’t met a parent yet who’s been angry because they had to wait a few seconds longer to get into the building, or had to wait a few seconds longer to have their kid checked out to them. I haven’t met a parent yet who said ‘I wish you guys weren’t keeping our kids so safe.’”
Other features include vehicle access readers, shatter proof readers and surveillance cameras installed throughout the district.