By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
The Great Bend School Board voted Monday night to tighten security at all of Great Bend's public schools and USD 428's district office. Board members approved paying Nex-Tech just over $5,600 per month to secure the main exterior doors at all of those buildings with an electronic access control system.
Keys will no longer be used to get into the schools. The district's assistant superintendent John Popp told board members how the new system will work.
“We can use our ID badges and they can be coded to the door lock,” Popp said. “A staff member can just scan their ID and be able to unlock the door and come in.”
Ryan Axman, the district director of information technology, explained what school staff will do if a school needs to be locked down for security reasons.
“They actually have a switch,” Axman said. “It’s kind of like a fire alarm switch in each building. You just pick up the lever, turn the switch, and it locks everything down.”
The district will lease the electronic system for five years with Nex-Tech providing maintenance as part of the lease price. Axman said he believes the system will be installed by late summer if there are no supply chain interruptions.