The Burlington Community School District has seen a fair amount of facilities work of late, especially with the renovation of Burlington High School, but parents and students also may have noticed the addition of new safety features in recent months.
There are bright yellow bollards in front of schools, glass hardened windows, additional fencing around school grounds, and door sensors that alert if an exterior door is open when it shouldn’t be.
“This goes back to 2022,” Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds Brent Krieger said. “We had done some (safety) audits in every school. We had a third party come down and meet with us and we went and toured every school, looking at different aspects of safety and security, which involved everything from lights, cameras, exterior doors, safety glass, the perimeter fencing, making sure the grounds and the playgrounds are secured.”
Those safety audits were done as part of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’s school safety initiative. The $100 million investment, paid for through American Rescue Plan Act and Emergency and Secondary Emergency Relief funds, enabled vulnerability assessments for all 1,500 K-12 school buildings in Iowa. It also made available grants of up to $50,000 per building to harden schools.
Using the recommendations from the audit, BCSD applied for and was awarded $50,000 each for Corse Early Childhood Center; Black Hawk, Grimes, North Hill and Sunnyside elementary schools; Aldo Leopold Intermediate School, Edward Stone Middle School and Burlington High School.
“We appreciate the governor’s ongoing advocacy for school safety as it has allowed us to continue to make our buildings safer throughout Iowa. The grant funds we received allowed us to provide additional fencing and security measures throughout the district,” Superintendent Robert Scott said. “And Brent Krieger has done a great job of taking the lead. His leadership on this project has been extremely valuable.”
Krieger has been working with principals, contractors and special services secretary Nicole Chaillie to keep the grant work moving along.
“It’s a huge safety effort for the students and the faculty, the whole district,” Krieger said. “With what we’re doing, we’ve got the gold standard. We’re doing it the right way.”
With the grant-funded work nearly complete, the district is looking to further bolster security at North Hill, Grimes and Sunnyside with secure office entry. With that reconfiguration, visitors will not be able to go anywhere other than the office upon entering the buildings. Krieger said plans are to start with Grimes over winter break.
