Parents Still Bitter About Battle for Central School Security System

Dennis Tully has an easy way to measure how long it has taken to get a new security system at the Central School on Lincoln Avenue.

“My son was in kindergarten when we started this project,” said Tully, a state trooper. “He’s in the third grade now.”

The Haddonfield board of education approved a measure to purchase a card-swipe, door-lock security system in December, but only after a contentious 30-minute debate. Two board members, including the president, voted against it, even though Tully and other PTA members at the school had raise $9,500 of the $16,000 needed for the system. 

Board members Steven Weinstein, president, and Marsha Marshall voted against the measure and Joe Ehrhardt abstained. It passed by a 5-2 vote, with one member absent, at the end of a nearly three-hour meeting. The board agreed to pay $3,500 of the cost.

Tully, who gave a spirited defense of the proposal before it passed, was among a handful remaining in the audience when it did. He still winces when he thinks about why there was even a debate about the security system.

“I was a little taken back by the lack of understanding of some of the school board members, as well as the lack of understanding of the need for physical security,” Tully said Monday evening. “There is one common thread of all the school violence issues, the Columbines, the Amish school shootings, Virginia Tech shooting. Everybody said ‘We never thought it could happen here.’ I think people need to realize it can happen.”

Weinstein said he was concerned about other parent’s groups “dictating” security measures to the board and the board’s ability to afford them. Marshall said she thought it was a “moral” issue because the card-swipe system would be superior to a buzzer system in the borough’s other schools. Ehrhardt said he was against the system because it presented a “false solution.” He suggested better security protocols at the school.

“If we spend to make people feel good, I just can’t see that,” he said before abstaining from the vote.

The measure passed only after the first sentence was taken out. It read: "Be it resolved, that a card swipe security system is deemed in the best interests of the Central School and Middle School community; and in regard there to, parents have taken the initiative in analyzing different levels of security and be it resolved that the installation of a card swipe system is deemed appropriate."

The estimated cost of the card-swipe system is $16,000.  The school board will pay $3,500 and the PTA of Central School will pay the remainder, of which $9,500 has already been raised. The measure stipulated the project will not start until all of the PTA's portion of the money is raised.

The Central School is part of a complex that is connected to the borough middle school. Board members said the Central School PTA was against remote lock system in which visitors had to be buzzed into the school when it was installed at the borough’s three other schools several years ago. The concern then was that Central School parents liked the access they had to the school and that the office is located near the front door and allowed for easy monitoring of visitors, board members said.

But PTA members now say they were alarmed by several incidents over the past year when the school was locked down because of police searches for suspects in crimes, including a bank robbery.

Central School PTA President Danielle Meeker said she is frustrated by the resistance of some board members.

“When you sit back and think about it, it really doesn’t make much sense,” Meeker said. “For board members to be concerned about if our system is superior to other schools is a little frightening.”

Tully, who has more than 24 years in law enforcement, did a survey in 2009 to access security at the school. He entered the school on 14 different occasions wearing different attire, including fatigues and a backpack. He was only asked to identify himself four time and frequently had free access to all parts of the school. The survey was approved by the board of education.

He said the card-swipe system will not solve all of the security concerns at the school. Better protocols and vigilant parents and staff are also needed.

“The devices will mean nothing without protocols,” he said. “If you are going to the gym or the office, you don’t need access to the entire school.”

Michelle Smith, another parent and past PTA president, said she is “thrilled” the security system was approved and is confident parents will raise the remaining $3,500 needed to install the new system over the summer.

“It will bring us into this century,” she said.