Geneva schools outline priorities for building work

The Geneva school district anticipates spending at least $8.65 million in the next seven years on projects to improve buildings and grounds, and at least $298,000 to increase security, according to reports presented to the school board Monday.

The list includes replacing a roof, retooling two 40-year-old restrooms, replacing seven air handlers that are more than 40 years old, and replacing four failing heating boilers (two that are 57 years old) at Geneva High School.

The security plan calls for spending $83,300 on equipment in the 2015-16 fiscal year. That will include putting vision-obstructing materials on windows, installing a panic button at the main office at Geneva High School, and installing more cameras.

The vision-obstructing materials will be used in classrooms where the district can't do a proper hard lockdown now. In a hard lockdown, students and staff are supposed to be hidden from view of attackers, making it appear as if the room is vacant, according to a safety and security supervisor Amy Campbell.

Over the next seven years, the district should plan to spend about $298,000 on security, she said. That would include placing bollards in front of Geneva Middle Schools North and South, to prevent vehicles from being driven into the main entrances of the schools, and covering some vertical pipes to prevent people climbing on to the roofs of schools. It also includes changing hardware on some doors that have push-bars, so that teachers could lock the doors from the inside in case of an emergency.

Board member Mary Stith said she wondered if it was wise to stretch the security work out over seven years, since a consultant has identified deficiencies.

"I just wonder about the priorities," she said.

But Campbell said the district is doing what the consultant recommended are the highest priorities, and that it has to balance what could be done to make schools totally safe with other needs of the schools.

"We also need to tailor it (the plan) to our district. We need to have it (a school) open and friendly. We need to have it not be a prison and a jail," Campbell said.