By SHANNON CAULFIELD
The Medford Sun
The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School affected everyone nationwide, but educators especially.
A moment of silence to remember those lost hushed a normally loud room during the Medford Board of Education meeting on Monday, Dec. 17.
The feeling of insecurity was not lost on one parent who voiced his concerns during the public comment section of the meeting.
“I don’t usually come to these meetings,” said parent Robert Levins. “The number one priority of the school district, the township, and the administrators needs to be the safety of our children. I’m so convinced of this that immediate action needs to be taken.”
Levins spoke of the inadequate security at Cranberry Pines.
“Often I go up there, get buzzed and they let me in. I’ve allowed people to go in after me by holding the door, who knows who I’m letting in, numerous times I’ve been let in,” said Levins. “I don’t want to be one of those 20 parents who are questioning why they didn’t stand up, or why the district didn’t do anything. I’m not blaming the district but you can’t comprehend what’s going on here.”
Levins lamented he did not know the answer, but wanted to look into possible solutions for safety.
“We’ve been good in terms of other schools,” said school board president Michael Etter. “What we need is a proactive response, not reactive.”
According to board member Michelle Hammel, Milton H. Allen School performed an evacuation drill the day before the tragedy.
“We’re looking at doing video upgrades, numerous upgrades to Taunton Forge including remote video access,” said superintendent Joseph Del Rossi.
He went on to speak about the layout of both Allen school and Cranberry Pines, and taking a hard right leads any visitor to a kindergarten classroom.
“It’s something we need to take a look at, we need to take a look at places to generate dollars. All our teachers, administrators and support staff are on board with taking these precautions,” said Del Rossi. “No one can give you a guarantee nothing is going to happen, but we are where we need to be in terms of being proactive in addressing the issue.”
In other news: options were presented to begin fixing critical upgrades in various schools, including Tauton Forge and Memorial Middle School.
Director of Operations, Joseph Biluck presented options for the district to fix multiple areas in schools in need of updates and improvement.
Currently, the best way to handle the weight of the cost is through the Board of Public Utilities Energy Savings Program.
According to Biluck, the program is “underutilized” with millions of untouched funds.
The district is currently looking into options to take the necessary steps in obtaining the funds.
The next board of education meeting will be the reorganization meeting on Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. at Memorial Middle School located at 55 Mill St.
