Security Needs Assessed at Chatham Schools

The School District of the Chathams conducted security assessments — led by a representative from the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office — at all of its schools during the week of May 6.

Describing the experience as “very informative” and a “worthwhile endeavor,” Superintendent Dr. Michael LaSusa explained during Monday’s Board of Education meeting that the assessment is currently going through the Department of Homeland Security and will result in a report the district will receive.

“[The report] will help inform some of the decisions we make about the safety and security of our buildings,” LaSusa said.

Board Vice President Jill Critchley Weber, who was present for most of the assessments, said 80 percent of the recommendations given during the assessments were “more procedural” in nature and would not necessarily require a large amount of expenses.

“It’s just changing and tweaking some behavior,” Critchley Weber said. “Some of the recommendations might be changing the culture and how much we expose to the outside world.”

During the meeting, Chatham High School junior Austin Barkhorn mentioned that he had recently encountered an issue with locks at the high school.

After recently working on a project after school, Barkhorn said he and his classmate wanted to put their project back in a room in the science wing. Although the door was locked, his classmate noted that there was a gap between the doors.

Although Barkhorn didn’t think anything of it at first, he said he quickly realized the door could be easily opened with a metal ruler.

“It occurred to me that, wow, we have all these security procedures, people are trained and we spend all this money on locks,” Barkhorn said, “and a guy with a metal ruler can get into any room in the building.”

Responding to board member Matthew Gilfillan’s query about replacing doors at the schools, LaSusa said doing so across the board might end up costing more money than the district is currently interested in spending.

LaSusa said the building entrances and envelopes were discussed during the assessments. However, he said he would rather not discuss those recommendations publicly.

“We’ll follow up with those during the [board’s next] facility and finance committee meeting,” he said.