City schools get security upgrades

Video cameras and new intercom systems installed at two buildings

WOONSOCKET – The high school and Woonsocket Area Career and Technical Center have become more secure in the past few months due to a school department capital improvement initiative, but more work ahead to complete the project, according to School Superintendent Patrick McGee and Facilities Director Peter Fontaine.

Although a majority of the work – including the installation of new video cameras inside and outside the schools and updated building communication systems-- has been completed, McGee said the contractors hired by the project’s manager, Robinson Green & Beretta (RGB) of Providence, are still working in the schools even though the original completion date has passed.

School officials were to meet with Robinson Green & Beretta’s project managers on Friday for an update on the remaining “punch list” items still in progress, he said.

“It is definitely getting done and all of the cameras are up and working,” McGee said while noting the short list of remaining work to be completed on the security improvements.

The security enhancements were included in an overall grant request of $2.1 million that the school department won last year from the state’s School Building Authority Capital improvement fund. The awarded funding was used to complete replacement of a portion of the high school’s roof and all of the Career Center’s roof over the summer at a cost of about $1 million, according to McGee and Fontaine.

The award also included the security and safety updates at the buildings that totaled approximately $500,000, McGee noted.

That work, which also included the updating of doors in the schools with sensors telling the central office if any are open, was originally scheduled to be completed by

Sept. 14 under the contract issued for the work.

RGB hired two subcontractors, Secure Our City of Massachusetts, and AFA of Rhode Island, to complete the security updates but the work remained in progress into the winter, McGee said.

The school department had a clause in the contract allowing for daily assessments on the uncompleted work which have been activated and will remain in effect until the project is deemed complete, McGee noted. The school department also obtained a waiver from the Rhode Island Department of Education that extended the completion date for the improvements to June 30, the last day of the fiscal year.

A final phase of the improvement project calls for the installation of a new entrance area for the high school that will improve the visitor entry process now in place.

Rather than allowing entry by a buzz-in system controlled from the office and a check in with a staffer at a visitor registration table, the planned foyer modification will create a secured entry area that will be set apart from main lobby inside the school.

Visitors will sign in that area first before passing through the doors allowing access into the main building, according to McGee.

“It is something we wanted to do to make sure we have the highest level of security possible and that it is not easy for people to get inside the school and wander around,” McGee said.

The entryway phase of the project will be done during after school hours and on weekends as well as the upcoming February vacation, McGee and Fontaine said.

“I think it is going to look great when it is completed and people are going to see a big improvement in security when they come to the school,” Fontaine said.

While the current work has already been funded under the state’s past school improvement initiative, McGee said the department is also looking to continue its improvement projects in the new round of funding just issued for such projects.

The Leo A. Savoie Elementary School on Mendon Road will be getting a new boiler installed under that round of funding as well as the installation of new windows throughout the school, McGee said. The total cost of the work, expected to be done over the summer, will be just under $1 million, he said.

Getting the work done is an important improve- ment for the local district and comes when the state is considering spending even more money on improving Rhode Island schools, up to $500 million worth of updates if Gov. Gina Raimondo can win support for that goal in the current session of the General Assembly.

For Woonsocket, getting the current projects completed will hopefully open the door to yet another round of state funding coming the city’s way.

“I’ll be glad when it is finally done but it is taking longer than we anticipated,” McGee said.