Kathy Jeffries has been an administrative assistant in the Central Elementary front office since 1999. For much of that time, visitors to the school could easily walk into hallways and classrooms without her knowing or approving their entry.

“We had parents in the building all over the place, and most of the time, we didn’t even know they were in the building,” Jeffries said.

But when Jeffries returned to Central this spring after a year of COVID-19 distance learning, there were new, major security changes at the front entrance of her school. There are two locked barriers between the outside world and the classrooms – and Jeffries and her front office team now manage who comes in and out. Jeffries said she loves this new secure entryway.

“It’s such an upgrade,” she said. “I could just go on and on about how much more secure our building is, and how much safer our students are.”

Central isn’t the only Ferndale school to receive a major security upgrade recently. In the past year, every Ferndale school building but two, including the district administrative office, have installed new secure entryways. These upgrades were funded with the voter-approved 2019 bond.

Even though the security upgrades were comparatively inexpensive compared to building a brand-new Ferndale High School, it’s still a necessary change to protect students and staff, said Ken Kuiken and Tex Ladish from Construction Services Group.

“We want to channel any visitor to the campus through one entryway, and not allow any access other than that one point, so we know exactly who’s coming into our schools,” said Kuiken.

Now, for a visitor to get to a classroom at Central, they must ring a doorbell outside the front door. A camera attached allows the administrative assistant to see the visitor and unlock the front door. Then, the visitor must enter the front office and sign in before entering through another set of locked doors. Most other Ferndale school buildings and the district office have nearly identical new entryways.

“I think it’s definitely safer,” said Lea Morris, the district office administrative assistant and webmaster. “You can see who’s coming in, and who’s coming to the door, so that’s a plus.”

There are a few schools with slightly different setups. Because of Custer Elementary’s unique layout, the school only has one secured doorway, with a camera and buzzer outside the locked front door, Kuiken and Ladish said. North Bell has a buzz-in gate surrounding the campus with a camera at the front, said Director of Maintenance Jamie Plenkovich.

Beach Elementary will have a one-door secure entryway like Custer, and it will be installed sometime this school year, he said.

Not only does the Central Elementary secure entryway make the school safer, it also blends in perfectly with the existing building, Jeffries said. To some, it might look like the new entryway was always there.

“Kudos to whoever designed the entryway,” Jeffries said. “Everything matches, they did such a beautiful job.”