Published: October 24, 2009 08:44 pm      

Mercer County adding key-card security to several schools

PRINCETON — Schools are continuing to add new layers of security in order to ensure the safety of their students, so Mercer County Schools will soon be putting new locks on some schools to limit easy access.

The Mercer County Board of Education is now seeking bids to install new security measures at 16 schools which include the county’s elementary schools and Lashmeet/Matoaka School, which is a kindergarten through eighth grade facility.

“It’s a card swipe,” Jim Akers, purchasing director for Mercer County Schools, said of the systems being sought. “The door has a card swipe system, and you use your card to gain entry.”

Similar to the key card systems found at some hotels and motels, the system would include cards for teachers, administrators and coaches, Akers said. While the front doors of schools are open during the day–visitors must report to the school’s office–the locks would allow teachers and other personnel to re-enter schools if they left through exterior doors.

“This would allow them to use a side entrance door and again gain access back into a school without having to go back to the front entrance,” Akers said.

The total cost of installing the systems will not be known until bids are received and examined, Akers said.

Bids are scheduled to be opened on Nov. 5 at the Mercer County Board of Education offices in Princeton, he said.