Bend-La Pine Schools speed up safety project

Nearly two-dozen schools in the Bend-La Pine district soon will have safer front entrances.

Vestibules will be used at front entries to make them more secure.

When school starts and ends, students will walk through a large entrance. However, during school hours, those entrances will be secured, and anyone who enters or leaves will have to go through a secure walkway and be buzzed in or out.

Originally, the vestibules were going to be constructed during the summertime. But, the school board decided Tuesday night to accelerate that process.

“School safety is always important to us. We have to make sure our students are safe, and we have to make sure that as a board we are doing everything we possibly can to make sure that’s our No. 1 priority,” board member Cheri Helt said. “That’s why we are going with a different process to get the secure vestibules put in place as soon as possible, because we know that secure vestibules make our schools safer.”

Superintendent Shay Mikalson said these secure entryways are just one step in the larger plan to make schools a safer learning environment.