NAPPANEE – This spring, the Wa-Nee School Corporation will make improvements at NorthWood High School.
They will include changes to the entrance of the school to improve security.
“We have been thinking about this for the high school for several years that we need to have increased security for the entrance,” said Superintendent Joe Sabo.
A plan to make that happen will begin this spring.
The Wa-Nee Board of Trustees has approved an improvement project to the high school main entrance set to begin in April. It involves adding an office complex at the south entrance.
“To improve security so that anybody coming into the building will actually have to go through the office, which is not the case in our current construction,” Sabo said.
It includes two sets of doors. Among other things, an intercom system will screen those coming in.
“There will be that feature at the entrances at all of our buildings now where parents can identify who they are and what their business is, and we have that currently at the rear of our buildings for service entrance,” Sabo added.
Then, they will have to be buzzed in through a second set of doors to enter the main part of the building. The overall project will also include improvements to technology, like adding Wi-Fi and replacing a boiler.
When upgrades are completed at NorthWood, the school system will then begin to look into possible renovations at the three elementary schools and the middle school. But right now, no plans have been firmed up for that work or any discussions as of yet with the school board to look into that matter.
“Some other things we will be doing here next year or so is putting in the infrastructure for a Wi-Fi system in all five of our schools,” Sabo pledged.
Estimated cost for the renovation is a little less than $2 million.
