Wrentham School Committee Looking Into New Security Measures

They may be ahead of other districts in school security, but the Wrenthan schools want to be even more secure.

The Wrentham School Committee met on Tuesday and discussed security measures currently taking place in the district.

Superintendent Jeff Marsden said, though, he and Wrentham police chief James Anderson believe current security measures are ahead of what other districts are doing, they want to improve upon what they already have.

“Homeland security said we’re already doing it well, this was just a way to look at what we have and improve,” he said. “We’ve had an increased police presence in the schools and they’ve been consistent with that we appreciate their support with that.”

Anderson agreed, saying that though it’s a good measure, there are always drawbacks.

“We’re all in agreement that there should be an increased police presence in the school, it’s just a problem finding a funding mechanism,” he said.

Besides increased police presence, the schools will be performing “lockdown” drills during the first week of February, as well as having panic button alarm systems placed throughout the school system.

The committee also discussed a new construction at the entrance of the Delaney School to force people to go right to the office area instead of the school hall.

The committee also discussed the addition of a resource officer to the schools. The question was how to find the funding and funding responsibility of whether the police or schools should pay for the position.

“We will also have a local security expert will come in and assess our practices and give us recommendations,” Marsden said. “It’s important to remember that these are improvements. It gave me the connotation that we’re not doing it well, we are doing it well, we’re just looking to improve.”