Hough Elementary to receive security upgrades

Hough Street School likely won't receive a long-discussed $2 million renovation that proponents say would make the building at 310 S. Hough St. in Barrington more functional and safer this summer, but the District 220 board approved a smaller-scale security plan that one board member called a Band-Aid.

The district will build a front desk near the main entrance and hire an employee to sit there and manage the people who go in and out of the building. The district will also add locks to the second set of front entrance doors and install a system where the front desk person can buzz visitors in after communicating with them via an intercom system.

"It brings us, I would say, up to and possibly exceeds the level of all the other schools in the district," Superintendent Brian Harris said of the plan. "So we would have a very safe and appropriate entryway there."

But board member Wendy Farley called the new plan a "quick fix" that just delays action on the larger $2 million renovation, which would address more of the more than 50-year-old building's issues.

"We continue as a school board to postpone the renovations which are needed at Hough," Farley said. "And we are still sitting here today talking about bubble gum and Band-Aids to fix Hough Street School, and it's not acceptable."

Harris said the district wouldn't be able to implement the $2 million plan, which includes changing the footprint of the building, until the summer of 2017.