Three Village Schools Get Security Upgrades

A new focus on safety and security through "prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery" is under way in the Three Village Central School District, according to a recent presentation by the district's new security consulting firm.

"We have to change our culture of safety and security in this country and Three Village is not immune to that. We have to work hard as a team," said Jack Blaum, who owns the security firm Island Compliance Corporation, which began contracting with the TVCSD in June.

According to Blaum and district architect John Grillo, the changes that are being made in the district include:

• The addition of vestibules at the main entrance to each building except for Ward Melville High School, where visitors will be required to check in with identification. The vestibules will feature two-way intercoms with cameras. Nassakeag Elementary will have two vestibules because of the building's layout.
• Exterior lighting repairs at each building.
• A strict policy on locking the doors at each school.
• Removing shrubs and plantings on school grounds that "obstruct tactical observation," or the ability of the security officers to see the buildings and grounds clearly.
• Sharing radio frequencies between the Setauket and Stony Brook fire departments, as well as moving radio controls from Ward Melville HS to the top of Stony Brook University's Health Sciences Center, which Blaum said increased the district's bandwidth ten-fold.
• Monitoring of district security patrol vehicles location by the use of GPS.
• Establishing a simplified emergency notification system utilizing the current email system.
• Installing high-security classroom locks, which no longer require the teachers to go out into the hallway to lock their doors.
• Upgrading and repositioning existing security cameras and installing additional cameras to total approximately 500 cameras district-wide.