Great Salt Bay Community School is considering measures to boost security, including surveillance cameras, a buzz-in system at the main entrance and a panic button.
Principal Jeff Boston, at a Jan. 9 meeting of the Great Salt Bay School Committee, said the school has looked at a surveillance network of 16 cameras with a video feed to the school office and the Damariscotta Police Department and a one-month archiving system.
Security enhancements at the main entrance might consist of locking the doors during school hours and installing a video camera that would allow office staff to see who is at the entrance before unlocking the door.
Boston said the Augusta school his children attend has a similar system. As a parent, he said, he appreciates the system and the security it provides.
School administrators and faculty have also met with law enforcement leaders, including Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett, Damariscotta Police Chief Chad Andrews and Lincoln Academy School Resource Officer Mark Bridgham, to talk about how the school and law enforcement “can work together to have a safe school system,” Boston said.
The school has not made any decisions about security measures and no decisions are pending, Boston said. “It’s just opening up dialogue at this point,” he said.
The tragedy at Newtown, Conn., has led to an ongoing conversation at all levels of education and law enforcement about how to keep young students safe, he said.
“We will just have to make sure that we continue to watch spending,” Boston said.
Teachers Lorna Fake and Dan Hupp and speech therapist Susan Buckland attended the Jan. 9 committee meeting to present their websites to the committee and talk about how they use the sites as a tool to communicate with parents and students.
Fake’s website features a schedule of special events, a weekly newsletter, information about homework, a slideshow with photos of her second graders participating in class activities and a brief biography of the teacher.
Fifth grade teacher Hupp said he tries to use the class website he shares with fellow fifth grade teacher Heidi Kopishke as an “excuse blocker.”
The website includes due dates for homework assignments and prominently features a countdown that reminds students how many days they have to complete major projects.
“There’s really no wiggle room for ‘I didn’t know, I didn’t have the stuff,'” Hupp said. “It’s kind of taken that out.”
A longtime GSB speech therapist, Buckland said she does not need to communicate the same information about day-to-day activities and assignments, but she wants her website to serve as a resource for parents with questions about speech and language development.
Buckland’s website includes ideas for home support and links to other helpful websites and apps.
The teachers and Buckland credited GSB technology coordinator K.J. Flewelling with helping them build and maintain their websites.
Principal Boston said the faculty websites are all a little different but are easy to navigate and have elicited positive feedback from parents. He said it’s important to communicate with parents in other ways besides a print newsletter.
