School headquarters get electronic door controls
JANESVILLE — The administrative center for the Janesville School District now has the same door security system as at all the district's school buildings.
Visitors to the Educational Services Center, 527 S. Franklin St., will have to press a button and talk to a receptionist via intercom at the door starting Friday.
Receptionists will be trained in assessing potential threats, said Mat Haeger, district manager of health and safety.
The receptionist also will view the visitor via a video camera. Cameras will be mounted at all three entrances. The receptionist will be able to disarm the door lock to permit entry.
All visitors will be required to wear either a visitor badge or district ID card, the same requirement as in the school buildings. Visitor badges will be available at the reception area inside the main entrance.
Staff members will be asked to greet visitors who do not have a visitor badge or district ID and help them in obtaining a badge.
For school board meetings and other public meetings, the doors will be unlocked at 5 p.m.
Anyone who needs to use the handicapped-access entrance should go to the rear of the building off the parking lot. Deliveries should still go to the entrance off of South River Street.
For more information, call the Educational Services Center at (608) 743-5097.
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Jul 31, 2009 at 4:06 p.m.
Suggest removal
As an employee of the district, I have to say that some of these "safety" measures are overkill. I wonder how much of these measures are actually a way to surveillance the employees. It's almost insulting to report to our disrict office for a work purpose and be made to buzz in and sign in like a stranger. All for the 1 minute it takes to drop off something or pick something up (on my time, no doubt). It takes longer to sign in/out than it does to do what I went there to do!
Jul 31, 2009 at 12:03 p.m.
Suggest removal
Are they still saving up for the barbed wire, and attack dogs?
Jul 31, 2009 at 11:53 a.m.
Suggest removal
This is an unneccesary expense and a solution in search of a problem. There are far better ways for the school district to spend its limited funds. If the administration is making this semi-poor decision, it makes me wonder how many other similarly faulty decisions are being made.
Jul 31, 2009 at 11:39 a.m.
Suggest removal
I don't have a problem with the central office being treated the same as other buildings in the district. In fact when I was a Board member it was troublesome to me to watch people walk into the building and roam where ever they wanted to go. I know it is a public building but the public doesn't have the right to go anywhere in the building they want to without a purpose, and if they have a purpose they can check in with someone state their purpose and I am sure they will be taken care of.
Jul 31, 2009 at 9:13 a.m.
Suggest removal
No money spared for administrators. Last time I heard there had been no administrative building targeted as a shooting. Worse yet, this targets the citizens and demands surveillance on them, thus making the space inhospitable to the people the administrators are supposed to serve.
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