The days of just writing your name on a sticky badge when you visit Concord High School are over.
Instead, visitors now submit their driver’s license to a scanning device, which pulls their name, date of birth and their photo from the license, and prints it onto a label. That label serves as a temporary ID – and when visitors come back, they need only use one of the several kiosks located around the school to print another badge.
It’s the new reality at CHS, which is in the process of upgrading its security system for the high school thanks to a $934,000 grant from the state’s public school infrastructure fund. The system, called, Raptor, is the first of several changes that will be implemented throughout the school year.
Raptor also allows students who are tardy to check in around the school rather than having to visit the front office every time.
“It’s focused on knowing who is in the building,” said Concord School District’s technology director, Pam McLeod. She said the information can be accessed remotely in the event of an emergency.
That’s not the only upgrade coming to the high school; the district is also adding 192 interior and exterior cameras, electrifying its doors so they can be locked on a schedule and installing pin pad and card swipe access to all of its entrances.
Facilities director Matt Cashman said the entire project will continue through April. Right now, he said the district is in the “behind the scenes” phase, running wires throughout the entire building in anticipation of installing the new electric doors.
But the more nuts and bolts work – how the camera footage will be stored and for how long, and whether students will be able to use their IDs to access the building – won’t be hammered out until the system is in place, said district finance director Jack Dunn.
“That will all be solved as part of the policy discussion,” he said, referring to the school board. “We won’t know that until we get a little bit more into it.”
The school board is expected to hear a presentation on the project in November.
The project is one of the hundreds approved by the state after Gov. Chris Sununu set aside close to $30 million for school life-safety infrastructure upgrades. The state has promised to match 80 percent of the grant, meaning Concord had to come up with about $187,000 for the project. The school district will be reimbursed when the project is completed.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)