Elgin Public Starts Off New School Year With Added Security

With all of the things going on in today’s world, Elgin Public School officials have been looking at security issues for several years, according to Superintendent Dan Polk.

Chain-link fences and a new buzz-in system may have looked intimidating to students on the first day of school, but have since become the norm at Elgin.

“The students, and the public for that matter, had heard all kinds of rumors of big fences and crazy security measures; but I think the actual implementation has been pretty ‘underwhelming,’” Polk said. “We are just five days into the new plans and usage, and it is going much better and easier than anticipated. The kids have picked up routines and combinations seamlessly and we have had many positive comments from parents and patrons. I'm sure we will have some changes to make here and there, but we are quite pleased so far.”

He said the four buildings on a campus that stretches out over two blocks in Elgin presents significant challenges.


“While we have an extensive set of cameras for surveillance, we have been trying to come up with something more immediately effective, while at the same time, not inhibit students from traveling between all four buildings as many of them have to do daily,” Polk said. “After working on it, re-working and discussing over the last couple years, we decided to use several different concepts together to try and make the campus more secure.”

He said the school had “a lot of fencing already on the one block with the three buildings and also had combination locks, for public use reasons, on the gym building and weight room.”  

“By simply closing in the fencing around the three buildings with certain access gates, we could significantly limit accessibility to any building at any time without locking all external doors and having a vulnerability when traveling between buildings,” Polk said. “The fencing and gates allows the three buildings to be an enclosed area where students and staff can freely travel between. By then putting a buzz-in system on the main office and two combination locks on the gym building, that change at certain times during the day, we secured the campus substantially to the outside world."

For all threats, whether they be internal or external, he said they have also allowed staff members to have resources to confront any severe threat that might be imminent, but for obvious reasons, are not making that information public.  

“I think it is logical to say that while a determined individual is impossible to stop from some kind of mayhem, the steps the Elgin School Board and administration have taken make the campus substantially safer, even if it is just a matter of giving us a few more seconds or minutes to act on our safety plans,” Polk said.

​