EYOTA — Don't expect to see locked doors with buzzers on the first day of school this year in the Dover-Eyota School District. By taking no action on the issue, the school board has put off installing controlled-access points at its schools.
"Will we have the doors by September?" asked Bruce Klaehn, superintendent of the district. "Probably not."
While the board could come back and approve secure access doors at the August meeting, he said he would prefer the district wait to get more information on how it would use the secure-access doors. For example, if a parent was not allowed to take a child from the building, that parent could be denied access.
Klaehn already received some information on building security. A mass email survey to all the district parents yielded 45 responses. Of those, 30 said the district needed better security at its schools while just four disagreed. The rest, Klaehn said, commented without taking sides.
In the interim, Klaehn said he would attend a conference to hear more on the subject and take a tour of area schools that have beefed up their building security.
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Board member Ron Pagel said he would prefer if the board waited to implement any security changes until after the school year began so students and parents aren't starting a new school year and a new security system at the same time. "Then we're just doing that new thing instead of that and beginning of school year," Pagel said. "Also, it would let people get used to how the procedure will work."
In other business, the board approved a new position for an assistant football coach. Currently there are four high school coaches. Klaehn said the extra coach would allow for better management of the team and equipment during games, especially on the non-varsity teams.
And finally, the board approved $7,500 for repairs to the ongoing roof leak at the district's elementary school. Jon Neubauer of TSP Inc, and architecture and engineering firm in Rochester, said his crew had found the source of the ongoing roof leaks that have plagued the building for more than a year.
Brian Todd is a freelance writer.
