News Photo by Julie Riddle Lee Fitzpatrick, director of communications at Alpena Public Schools, demonstrates a system that scans driver’s licenses and runs background checks on visitors at Ella White Elementary School in Alpena on Friday.

ALPENA — School visitors no longer receive a warm welcome as schools erect barriers between possible intruders and the children in their classrooms.

Security cameras, buzzers, background checks, and new security-related construction at Alpena Public Schools facilities — some funded by a bond sale approved by voters in March of 2020 — have made school entrances less welcoming to parents and other visitors.

Those inhospitable features help keep kids safe, said Lee Fitzpatrick, director of communications for APS.

A vestibule with locked doors and ID scanning system, unveiled at Ella White Elementary School at the beginning of the school year, models what all APS schools will have in coming years, with construction of vestibules at several schools scheduled for this summer, Fitzpatrick said.

The locks, scanning devices, cameras, and extra doors slow down well-meaning visitors, but they also slow down anyone intending to hurt children, Fitzpatrick said.

“It’s not as friendly,” he said. “It’s not as welcoming. But it’s secure.”

The safety makeover at the Ella White entrance will eventually appear at other Alpena elementary schools and at Alpena High School, with some construction beginning this summer, thanks to the 2020 bond sale.

Voters approved the sale of $33.9 million in bonds to fund school building upgrades. Property owners will continue to repay the bonds over the next 23 years through about 1.8 mills in property tax, or about $90 a year for the owner of a $100,000 house.

Most of that bond money was allocated to new furnaces, lights, and other building upgrades.

District officials have used some of the bond money allocated to safety upgrades to install school security cameras, while the rest will fund entryway improvements.

Difficulty securing construction workers to create the new entryways has slowed the progress of that project, as has the district’s decision-making process in choosing which security systems to purchase, Fitzpatrick said.

Security cameras to be mounted in vestibules can’t be installed until those vestibules are built, he said.

At Ella White, visitors not known to school secretaries — who can now see all visitors, thanks to a building redesign last summer — must insert their driver’s license into a device that allows the school to run an instant background check.

A history of sexual assault or other violent offenses or crimes against children will throw up a red flag, alerting school workers to respond with caution or deny admittance.

The background checks invade visitors’ privacy, but school officials view such precautions as necessary, Fitzpatrick said — especially in the wake of a recent school shooting in Texas that left 19 students and two teachers dead and 17 people injured.

Such scanners are used in all elementary offices now, but, once vestibules are built at other schools, the scanners will catch suspicious people before they make it into the building, Fitzpatrick said.

Improved sightlines between school employees and visitors will help slow potential intruders, as well.

“If I have a gun slung over my shoulder, they’re hitting 911 right now,” Fitzpatrick said, standing in the Ella White vestibule on Friday.

Recently, school officials put Alpena High School and Thunder Bay Junior High School into secure mode — locking all exterior doors and not allowing anyone to enter or leave — when police notified them of a suspicious person in the area.

Workers at a gas station near the schools notified police about a man who had made concerning comments. The man was gone when police arrived but was found later in the day and never posed any threat to students, police said.

Schools shouldn’t have to lock doors when they hear of such an incident, but they do, Fitzpatrick said.

“There’s so much risk in our world right now.” he said, “Our world has become such a stressful place that we have to act and react with extra caution.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.