Parents volunteer to keep students safe

Amsterdam School launches new program

By:Sally Goldenberg
   Pam Figard, a lunch aide with a child in the fourth-grade at Amsterdam Elementary School, has taken on an added duty — Ms. Figard is one of a number of parent volunteers who are providing extra security at the school.
   Tuesday marked the beginning of the new security program, managed by volunteer parents known as the Amsterdam Welcome Team, according to Amsterdam Elementary School Principal Nancy Richmond.
   The parental volunteers will greet visitors to the school, and escort them to the main office to sign in and get a visitor’s pass before venturing to a destination.
   "You get to see who’s coming in and know who’s in the building," Ms. Figard said. "It just gives that one extra person that they feel they have to check in with."
   The measure is in response to sweeping security concerns in the country — not specific worries over two recent safety incidents in district schools, Dr. Richmond said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
   "I think at this point in time, in the world events and so forth, we’re constantly trying to make the building as secure as possible," Dr. Richmond said.
   Many parents in the district expressed concern when two Sunnymead School first-graders left the school without permission April 25 and were found by police over an hour later near Commerce Bank, across Route 206.
   The following week, a fifth-grader at Auten Road Intermediate School reported being yelled at by a man in the school bathroom. The latter incident is under investigation but there are no active leads, Hillsborough Lt. Victor Kubish said this week.
   The situations highlighted the need for increased security but did not mandate the new system at Amsterdam, Dr. Richmond said.
   "Certainly all of that heightened our awareness," she said. But before Tuesday, strangers could enter the school without signing in, she added.
   "If a person wanted to, they could get past us there because I don’t have a security guard," she said.
   And while she cannot recall a visitor "who was here for trouble" in her nine years as principal, Dr. Richmond said some visitors neglect to check in and then wander the halls without a visitor’s pass.
   The 2003-04 school budget includes a $20,000 electronic security system for Amsterdam similar to those installed at Hillsborough and Woodfern elementary schools. The system entails outdoor buzzers and accompanying security cameras so school employees can identify visitors before allowing them to enter, and will be installed next year.
   But Amsterdam will still continue to use parent volunteers at the main entrance during school hours.
   "That’s not 100 percent," Dr. Richmond said of the electronic system. "We know of situations where people seem to be able to get in anyway."