In wake of Connecticut shooting, Nashua school system proceeding with $1.7m security upgrades

NASHUA – Building security wasn’t at fault in the shooting that shocked the nation Friday, since Sandy Hook Elementary School had recently installed measures that included locking the front doors and requiring visitors to ring a buzzer to get inside. Even so, concerns about school security were unavoidable after the massacre. As reports came out Friday about the parents’ nightmare unfolding in Connecticut, Nashua School District Superintendent Mark Conrad began getting calls from people concerned for their own children’s safety. Previous school shootings had already prompted Nashua school officials to start planning increased security measures, including locks, cameras and alarms, at all city schools. Officials last talked about security improvements in  November, when the Board of Education approved a $1.7 million plan to beef up security at schools throughout the city. All of the city’s schools are locked down during the school day, but only the high schools lock the front doors and require students and visitors to enter a security office and sign in before a live person. The main entrances at the elementary and middle schools are open and visitors are directed to the main office, Conrad said. The project to add security upgrades, which will go out to bid this summer, would add security enhancements such as cameras, intercoms and motion sensors at all main entrances and loading areas of city schools, add keypads and other devices at other school entrances, and improve security awareness among students and staff, Conrad said. Conrad said he heard from a handful of parents Friday expressing concerns for student safety. He sent an email throughout the district Friday afternoon that read, in part: “We want you to know that the Nashua School District does all it can to provide safe learning environments for all its students and staff.” Conrad said he and other staff members reviewed the district’s security plans with state officials earlier this year and made a few minor adjustments.