No decision made Monday night regarding building project

Following more than two hours of discussion Monday evening, the board did not put forth a motion to adopt a resolution to set the maximum amount the school could bond.

The school held a 10-28 hearing during the meeting to get public input on what's become the current plan, which is for $4.3 million to fund the pool renovations and a security upgrade.

Architect John Hawkins said he was planning for $775,000 for security upgrades but that, pending a site survey from Nettalon, the company that has offered to install their system on one Salem school building as part of a pilot program. The school decided to start with the middle school as it has the fewest students and was beleived to be a better place to try the system out.

This security system includes wearable fobs for teachers. When the fob button is pressed, the doors of the classroom lock, teachers throughout the building are notified, along with law enforcement. Security cameras connected to local law enforcement dispatchers show where a shooter is in the building and, after ensuring that innocent students aren't in the hallways, the sheriff's department will release a heavy water mist to force the shooter out of the building and into the waiting arms of police officers. The school has been assured that the mist does not leave a residue and is entirely visual, so it's safe for students to walk through, or even hide in, should they be stuck outside a locked classroom during a crisis. Additionally, the doors would be both bullet-proof and off-set so if a shooter were to look in a window, all they would see is an empty classroom.

Because of the construction of the middle school library, which has no doors and is largely open to a possible shooter, $175,000 of the money assigned for security upgrades will go to possible construction aimed at making that room securable.

"The [Nettalon] security system will cost $600,000 if we have no elements already in the building," said Superintendent Lynn Reed. "We do have some, so we'll have the site survey and we're hoping the cost will be drastically reduced. We need the site survey before we know the actual cost and see an itemized list of what we'll need."

Reed was clear that the school was under no obligation to move forward with the security system after the site survey was completed and Nettalon would not charge them for the survey.

The pool renovations, Reed said, have been stripped to the bare bones. A proposed plan to include deckside seating has been dropped in favor of a foldable glass wall in front of the current seating to allow spectators to hear what's going on in the pool during meets and for swimmers to hear their fans cheer for them. Proposed construction for another pump room has been dropped in favor of shifting the pumps and electrical room to other spaces already in existence.

Because the project will cost more than $1 million, the board was required to hold a 10-28 hearing, open for public comment and several members of the public signed up to speak. Some were in favor of the proposed plan, some were less so and some simply wanted more information. Read more about the discussion in this week's Salem Democrat.