Over the summer, the district will install a perimeter security system in its three elementary schools and intermediate school at a cost of $100,000. A similar system is already in place at the new middle and high schools. It also is procuring a reverse-911 system for contacting parents in emergencies.

“It’s important for us to do,” said School Board Chairman David Sacks. “It’s a little bit of the unfortunate reality of the time we live in.”

The upgrades to the rest of the schools in Bedford is in addition to about $441,000 in various renovations to Memorial School this summer.

Perimeter security will be based on electronic card readers at the main entrances to all four of the schools. Teachers and other staff will be able to pass through at various times of the day by swiping their ID cards. Teachers will be restricted to the work week, while administrators and custodians will have 24- hour access, seven days a week.

The new system will combine the best of access and security, said Mark Conrad, the chief financial officer for the district. School doors will be locked at all times, but the staff will have the flexibility to leave and enter without having to be let in by someone.

The card readers at school doors was one of the main recommendations of a consultant who had evaluated the safety of Bedford schools. Conrad said a number of other districts have a similar systems.

All schools should be outfitted with the card readers by the end of August or the beginning of September, said Conrad.

The consultant also has suggested that the district consider reinforcing perimeter security with surveillance cameras. No plans to purchase the cameras now but, he said, the district is revising its video surveillance policy in case the School Board decides to get them in the future.

Cameras are common in urban settings, he said, but are being increasingly used by smaller school districts outside of cities.

Reverse-911 system
At the same time, the district is setting up an emergency notification system for parents and staff. The system, which is computerized, will allow administrators to call every parent in the district within half an hour.

It can also contact parents at a single school or even families on one bus route in the event of a traffic accident.

“Five years ago it was not common,” Conrad said. “Nowadays, it is much more common.”

The district will be paying for the system, known as Alert- Now, through an annual $8,000 subscription. It will replace the old-fashioned telephone chain, Conrad said. Without it, large numbers of staff would have to dial parents individually if there ever were a serious emergency.

“We don’t have a pre-established plan for calling that many parents,” Conrad said.

AlertNow additionally could be used in non-emergencies. For example, it also could help the district with school attendance.

Each school would upload its own list of absent students to the AlertNow server, which would automatically call the parents for the whole district. Right now, however, the district does not plan to use AlertNow for attendance. Sacks said the School Board had wanted the new security measures established before the district is ever confronted with a crisis.

“We don’t want to find out what it’s like to not have such a system in place,” Sacks said. “We wanted to be ready.”

Otherwise, the district is renovating Memorial School. Conrad said the roof over the kindergarten is being replaced by Skyline Roofing in Taunton, Mass., for $254,000. Also, Hudson Paving, a local company, is reconstructing the back parking lot and bus loop for $187,000. “In essence it is a reconstruction of the site where we have pavement,” Conrad said.

The work began the week after school ended. The new roof should be in place in a few weeks, but the paving work will not be done until the first week of August, Conrad said.