WINDHAM – Windham High School officials are scheduled to inaugurate a card-reader program this week that will monitor student entry into the building throughout most of the school day.

All students who either go off campus during the school day or arrive late will have to swipe an ID badge through a card reader in order to enter the building. Only students with “privileges” – juniors and seniors who meet various academic, attendance and behavior requirements – are allowed to leave campus without permission during the school day, but school officials have had difficulty enforcing those rules in the past.

In order to get to the card reader, which is located inside a secure, camera-monitored vestibule, students must punch in a code – distributed to all those with privileges – to enter an initial set of entryway doors. The card reader manages access to a second set of doors.

With the new system in place, students will not be able to re-enter the building unless their ID cards indicate that they have privileges. Students whose cards are rejected will be able to contact school employees inside via an intercom.

The card-reader program, the centerpiece of a new access-control system funded in part by a $165,000 federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant, was scheduled to be operational by the end of October, according to Superintendent Sandy Prince. But school officials were hesitant to unveil the system before it was ready.

“It’s worth waiting to get it right, and we’re willing to give up a small delay in safety and security,” Prince said. “I think we envisioned that maybe sometime in October we’d have this up and running, but we’re probably three weeks over that. …We don’t want to backtrack and find that we made a lot of mistakes.”

While officials say the ID cards will be operational for students starting on Thursday, Nov. 21, faculty and administrators are scheduled to use the card-reader system by Thanksgiving, although that target may be pushed back, as well. Officials have run into complications as they have worked to create new staff IDs.

Regional School Unit 14 Facilities Director Bill Hansen, who is overseeing a sweeping overhaul of security and surveillance systems across the school district, said that the school’s security had not been compromised by the delay.

“I’m fine with saying that we’re three weeks behind schedule,” he said. “We never had a hard timeline, and I can live with that. To me, the school has been secure all this time. It hasn’t been insecure.”

Principal Chris Howell, who introduced the new system to juniors and seniors on Wednesday morning, said he did not know why the three-week delay had occurred. Hansen and Marlene Bicknell, assistant to the athletic director, said they had been testing the access-control system for weeks. Bicknell has overseen a pilot program involving two-dozen students, who have been using their ID cards to gain access to the “canopy” entrance since early November. In response to flaws exposed by the tests, the school has installed an extra keypad at the main entrance.

So far this year, students have signed in at the main and canopy entrances when they return to the building. Two of the inner doors at the canopy entrance remain open all day, monitored by Susie Gagnon, a door greeter who has worked for the school since shortly after the Sandy Hook shootings last year in Connecticut. Howell said that Gagnon, a temporary worker who is being paid at the long-term substitute rate of $70 per day, will stay on for another few weeks.

Bicknell said that the new card monitors allow school officials to store and utilize data on student entries.

“We can see what time the students swiped the card and which door they entered,” she said. “Or if it was an attempt, and they don’t have privileges, the card will show up as it was denied.”

But the school is unable to collect data on student departures. School Resource Officer Jeff Smith said that officials have considered installing card readers on the inside of the school, in order to regulate and monitor departures.

“The unintended consequence that we found is that we didn’t have a swipe-out to leave the building,” Smith said. “At some point in time we’re looking at putting in another swipe card.”

The school district applied for the COPS grant in 2011. The town has contributed $165,000 in matching funds. During the summer, South Portland-based Norris Inc. installed the two vestibules, electronic buzzers, and the card readers at Windham High.

There are also six new exterior cameras, and four new interior cameras at the school this year, Hansen said. School officials are especially excited about the panoramic outdoor cameras, which will monitor the student parking lots.

“One of the biggest improvements that we’ve had were the outside cameras, which give a 360-degree view of the outside of the buildings,” Howell said.

Regional School Unit 14 Facilities Director Bill Hansen demonstrates the use of a new ID card reader mounted outside Windham High School’s “canopy” entrance last week. Students are expected to begin using the card readers this week.

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