SWCC updates safety features

Southwestern Community College is working on a number of new features to keep the campus safe, including school-safe radios and a new building access control system. These efforts are all part of the school’s five-year facility maintenance plan, where each year a new fifth year is added to the plan and adjusted as needed.

Previously, the SWCC Board of Trustees approved the purchase of the school-safe radios, something recommended by Creston Police Chief Paul Ver Meer.

“Most of our K-12 school systems and other public service departments throughout the county already have these school-safe radios in place,” SWCC Vice President of Economic Development Wayne Pantini said. “Five of those radios will be placed around our campus and also one at each of our centers. It gives us direct access to dispatch if there’s anything that happens on campus.”

The radios will be placed in permanent locations around the school in secure locations, such as in major offices, for staff to use in case of emergency. Staff will be trained in proper protocol and procedure once the radios arrive.

A little further down the road is the access control system. The board approved the acquiring and installation of an access control system Tuesday and plan to approve a bid in October. With the new system, access to the buildings will be via key cards rather than the current physical key setup.

“Every student, faculty, staff, all have keys to all the buildings now, this is going to replace some of that layer of having an inventory of keys,” Pantini said. “We’ll be able to assign who will have access to certain buildings, and also we can program to have certain buildings shut down at certain hours.”

Rather than having staff going to each door at building closing hours to lock the building access doors, the doors will automatically lock at the specified time. Staff and students will then have to use key cards to get in.

Along with general safety, the new access control system will help in major events. Proof of the need of this change was seen during last year’s swatting call.

“When our school system goes on lockdown, we also go on lockdown. The difference is, it takes us a good 10, 15 minutes to make sure all of our exterior building doors are locked in the current system,” Pantini said. “This new system will allow us to be able to program that we can lock down all the buildings at once. It helps to shrink that window of opportunity for someone to get in.”

The Creston Community School District already utilizes this system, and Ver Meer suggested SWCC follow suit in a meeting on school-safety earlier in the year. “We’re trying to create more security for our campus students,” Pantini explained.

SWCC has budgeted $150,000 for the new access control system, but exact numbers will be unsure until the bidding process is through.