HAVERHILL — If you visit Haverhill High in the coming school year, be prepared to pull out your driver's license or another form of identification.
Your information will run through a computer and if the wrong answers come back, you will not be allowed into the school.
The school is tightening up on security, with classes starting Wednesday. All visitors to Haverhill High will be required to undergo an electronic background check through LobbyGuard, a visitor management system.
Visitors will be asked to swipe their driver's license through a computer in the school's lobby. The information will then be run through a sex offender registry and an additional list of people not welcome at the school for various reasons.
If your name is listed in a sex offender registry or if you are a parent who has been ordered by a court to stay away from your child, you will likely not be allowed into the school.
"Our concern is to protect the safety of students and there will be no great debate about this," said interim School Superintendent James Scully. "If your name shows up in the system, you may not be welcomed in the school."
Those who are not flagged by the LobbyGuard system will be photographed and their image and identifying information, including who they are visiting, will be printed on a badge they must wear while in the building.
The screening system is one of several security improvements at the high school and other Haverhill schools this year.
Other measures include plans for more surveillance cameras at Haverhill High, increasing police patrols at the start and end of school, and having school resource officers at the high school and at one middle school.
Officials said they also plan to replace the School Department's instant alert system, which allows them to make mass phone calls to all parents and guardians in the case of an emergency or special announcement, such as classes being canceled because of snow. The department's old system did not work as well as officials wanted, they said.
The LobbyGuard system at Haverhill High also allows administrators to add names of those who are not welcome in the high school — for example someone who has caused problems there in the past or a parent who is banned from seeing a child because of a restraining order.
Kara Kosmes, assistant superintendent of finance, said the equipment and training to operate the LobbyGuard system at Haverhill High costs $9,000, which will come out of the school's administration equipment account.
Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High adopted LobbyGuard two years ago. Whittier Superintendent William DeRosa said that last year a half dozen people were denied entry because of it.
He said a salesman whose name was on the Sex Offender Registry was turned away, and so were four or five adults involved in child custody battles or who had restraining orders against them.
"I think it is a very valuable tool, which is why I upgraded to it a few years ago," DeRosa said. "The more protection you can provide, the better off you are."
Student ID system expands; more cameras sought
Scully said this year all Haverhill students in grades five and up will carry bar-coded ID badges, an expansion of the student identification system that was in place last year in some, but not at all schools.
"It was a disjointed ID system," Scully said. "This will be a more efficient and standardized system than we had last year."
Kosmes said the badges will be used primarily for identification with food service, and to ensure that students belong in the school and are on their appropriate bus. Students who qualify for free or reduced lunch won't have to announce it when stepping up to the cash register in the school lunch line. Their ID cards will take care of that automatically. There will be a $2 replacement fee for lost ID cards.
Scully said staff will wear ID badges as well, like at Whittier Regional High. That will help identify them to emergency workers such as police or firefighters in the event of an incident in a school.
"It's an added degree of security," Scully said.
The high school currently has 29 security cameras and Scully said he wants to have 37 additional cameras, at a cost of around $70,000. He said he hopes to find a grant to pay for it.
"When you go to school, you are there to learn," Scully said. "Those who want to pull fire alarms and disrupt the school day are going to be dealt with."
Announcing emergencies to parents
Several years ago, the School Department adopted a Honeywell alert system that allowed the superintendent to send out instant notifications about things such as school closings.
Parents and staff whose contact information is in the system were instantly alerted.
"We've moved to the AlertNow system," Scully said about the change from the Honeywell system, which he said had brought complaints from parents who said they were getting duplicate messages.
Pamela Carr, director of information technology for the city, said the AlertNow system can help schools "go greener'' as principals will be able to send notices to parents by phone, e-mail or text in place of paper copies.
"It also allows the mayor's office to notify people in the school system of things like a closed street or any emergency such as a fire or a school lock-down," Carr said. "It's a more streamlined and efficient system."
More police in and around schools
Police presence in schools will increase this year both in buildings and outside.
Scully said School Resource Officer Sean Scharneck will be stationed at the high school. An officer will also be stationed primarily at Consentino Middle School, Scully said.
"There have been incidents of vandalism in that neighborhood and we've had a number of disruptive students with behavioral issues that have required police intervention," Scully said of Consentino.
He said he is working on security concerns with police Chief Alan DeNaro, Deputy Chief Donald Thompson and Capt. Alan Ratte.
"They agreed to have increased patrols at the start and end of the school day to monitor drivers who don't slow down and who are not stopping for crossing guards," Scully said.
Whittier Regional High also upgrades security
Whittier Regional will use bar-coded student IDs this year for the first time.
One feature allows parents to go online and add money to their child's lunch account. Whittier staff members also wear ID badges displaying their photograph and title.
"We are upgrading the system for attendance and library access as the next phase," DeRosa said.
Cameras in Whittier's corridors and on the outside of the building have been a valuable tool in the battle against vandalism, DeRosa said.
"Last year we caught a student pulling a fire alarm and it resulted in the student being suspended, fined and having to take a required safety course," he said.
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