ADAIR, Okla. — A $100,000 grant is providing much needed safety upgrades to Adair Public Schools.
“Our main concern here was just security,” said Adair Public Schools Superintendent Mark Lippe.
It’s a simple process that’s adding a critical layer of security to Adair Public Schools.
“We have many outbuildings that our students have to travel to,” said Lippe. “Our buildings are not all under one roof, so security is obviously a huge concern for us.”
With two public streets running through campus and many buildings like Agriculture and Band across the parking lot, Superintendent Mark Lippe says they needed a way to keep students more secure.
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“In today’s world there are many outside influences and any small steps we can take to help that mission it’s a great advantage to our school and state,” said Lippe.
The Openpath system allows students and staff to download an app which can open the locked back doors of the middle and high school campus.
“They have access to the buildings during the school day and we can keep those doors locked,” said Lippe.
He says it could also improve their response in case of a lockdown.
“In the past, an employee would have to come to each one of these exterior doors and actually lock the doors. Now, with the push of a button they’re locked all the time, but we could technically go into a lockdown where none of the card readers would work,” said Lippe.
The $100,000 grant from Google also provided Promethean boards. They’re touch screens and will help teachers provide interactive lessons in the classroom. Lippe says it’s beneficial that grants paid for all these upgrades.
“It allows us to protect our general fund dollars and now we can focus even more dollars into the classroom, and it just provides more and more opportunities for our students,” said Lippe.
For students who don’t have smartphones, the district can provide cards that will open the doors. Superintendent Lippe says they also recently passed a $17 million bond issue that will allow them to continue to expand the technology across the district.
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