Safety upgrades at Gillett Elementary School will change things up for parents and visitors seeking entrance to the building starting this week.
People entering the building during school hours will be required to press a button on an intercom box outside the doors that will ring a buzzer inside the office. Cameras located outside the entry area will allow office personnel to view visitors before allowing access to the building.
After entering, visitors are required to check in at the office.
School Board member Cliff Gerbers, at the Aug. 20 board meeting, questioned whether the buzzer system will be inconvenient for parents.
“Nope. What it will be, is different than it was,” replied Chris DeLeeuw, Honeywell Building Solutions project manager. The district contracted with Honeywell for a variety of building upgrades this summer.
Principal Curt Angeli said the change in accessing the building will be inconvenient only for people looking to enter the classroom areas, which were not closed to the public behind locked doors before the safety upgrades.
“But those days are done,” he said.
At Monday’s open house, Angeli said he’s glad to see the improved safety measures in place.
“I’ve been here for 25 years, and we talked about it a long time,” said Angeli, a former fourth- and fifth-grade teacher starting his second year as principal.
He said the district is focused on providing safety for the students, and limiting free access to classrooms is necessary to ensure students are as safe as possible.
DeLeeuw said the remote unlocking system will be sophisticated and user friendly.
Jeanne Schaefer, who attended the open house with her children, Juliene and Juniper, said she noticed the unsecured doors when she came to the school for the first time in 2014. Her children previously attended school in Green Bay.
She said she was pleased to see the switch to more restricted access.
“I’m very happy. Change is good,” she said.
Lighting and temperature controls in the school also were upgraded as part of an energy savings project undertaken by the district.
In addition, a trophy case was relocated to the foyer at the elementary school’s main entrance from its place in front of the office, to improve visibility for office staff looking toward the main doors.
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