WESTFIELD – The city council approved an appropriation of $50,000 which will be used this summer to conduct a security audit of the city’s 11 public school buildings.
Ward 5 Councilor Richard E. Onofrey Jr., requested the council to suspend its rules to act upon the appropriation which was not on the agenda Thursday night and the appropriation, requested by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and the School Committee, was approved by an unanimous vote of the members.
Onofrey said that City Purchaser Tammy Tefft had requested the council to approve the funding at the council session so the security assessment could be done over the summer.
The School Committee identified the need for the security audit at a meeting last December following the horrific tragedy that occurred in Newtown, Conn. Part of that discussion was focused on what could be done to ensure that kind of tragedy is not repeated here.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said that he initiated discussion with Police Chief John Camerota, following the Newtown tragedy, to immediately identify steps the city can take to ensure school safety.
“As a community leader when something like Newtown occurs, it causes you to take pause,” Knapik said at the December meeting. “Chief Camerota is a wealth of information. What the city is going to do now, based on conversations over the weekend, is hire architectural services to do an evaluation of our school buildings to see if we can’t harden entrances to improve safety and security.”
School Superintendent Suzanne Scallion said in December that the district had already taken steps to heighten security. Scallion said a number of standard operating procedures were reviewed and that the effort is to “reassure parents and students” that the city’s school facilities are safe.
Tefft said Friday that she requested quotes from architectural firms under contract to the city and that the low quote was submitted by C.D.R. Maguire, Inc., of Boston.
Tefft said the firm will conduct the security assessment over a 10-week period beginning with the inspection of the buildings and interviews with administration officials, with a goal of improving and updating both physical and operational security.
The report will identify three levels of security options and the cost associated with those options, ranging from low cost and immediate options, such as ensuring all building exterior doors are locked and installing a camera at the main entrance to screen people attempting to enter the building.
The third level, with the highest cost factor, could include new construction, as well as the installation of a security camera system for entire buildings, installation of bullet-proof glass and other physical barriers to channel building access.
“This assessment should tell us what we can do to improve safety and security, without becoming anti-people,” Tefft said. “It will look at how people enter and leave the buildings, what improvement and updates to building security can be implemented.”
