Saugus prepares new high school security plan

SAUGUS – Most have experienced a school fire drill, but Saugus High School will see more drills incorporating police when school opens in September.It?s part of a new security plan for the high school as Saugus prepares its school system for disaster in the wake of countless recent school shootings. The plans include cameras in the building, direct communication during a lockdown at the school and may include new personnel.Superintendent Michael Tempesta told School Committee members Thursday that CopSync would be set up in the school over the summer. The new technology incorporates cameras in the building and direct communication with Saugus police through faculty and administrator cell phones and computers in case of a lockdown, so police know where students and staff are in the building, and if they are hiding or have evacuated.Tempesta called it a “sophisticated” program that would “provide added safety to the district.”The CopSync program is paid for by the extra $265,000 the school department received over the winter, said committee Chairman Wendy Reed.Reed said Friday police would be drilling rescue routines at the high school over the summer and may join the fire department for regular drills for the students in the fall.Reed said the new committee of Tempesta and police, fire and ambulance representatives have “really stepped up school security planning.”Tempesta also announced at the meeting that the district had applied for a grant that would allow for two school resource officers, one for the high school and one for the middle school. “There?s a critical need in the district for it,” said Tempesta. The officers would hold mentoring and office hours in addition to a uniformed presence in the schools.Reed said the district applied in the spring and should hear back before the start of school.Committee member Arthur Grabowski reminded the committee that the grant would only pay for 75 percent of the school resource officer cost, and the community needed to provide the other 25 percent. When he asked Tempesta where that money would come from, Tempesta said he “hadn?t broached the subject yet.”