Pictured is the proposed new entrance of Jonathan Alder Junior High School, presented at a board of education meeting Tuesday night. The design features a new single door for entrance, featured right, where guests would have to page in to the front office for entrance and wait in the vestibule before entering the school via another door. There will be a double door arrangement on the left of the single door, but it will only open from the inside.
(Photo submitted)
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Officials are planning to beef up the security at Jonathan Alder Junior High School (JAJHS).
At a board of education meeting Tuesday night, Jonathan Alder Superintendent Gary Chapman showed council members plans to add an extension to JAJHS entrance. The addition would include a vestibule in the front, separated by two locking doors that would require people to page the front office for entrance.
Chapman said the construction would replace the front with a single door. He said neither door will open unless the other has been closed.
“The inspiration (came from) structural deficiencies and school safety and security,” Chapman said. “We’ve been talking about the front of that building since February.”
Chapman and other school officials communicated with Fanning Howey Associates, an architectural company in Dublin, to get an estimated cost of the project, totaling $130,000.
He said there would still be a double door near the entrance, but it will only be able to open from the inside.
Chapman said the project can still be done “with the canopy intact,” but the pine tree will “probably come down.”
The project was met with positivity among council members.
“I think that looks like a great solution, given the physical structure you’re dealing with,” council member Shannon Foust said.
Afterward, the board approved a motion to advertise for construction companies to place bids on the project. Bids will be accepted during the summer and construction is estimated to begin in November or December, but officials are unsure.
Also at the meeting, Jennifer Korn, the district’s director of student services, gave a presentation proposing the introduction of the Ruling Our eXperiences (ROX) program within the district.
Korn said ROX is a non-profit leadership program for girls from fourth grade and higher. It teaches them leadership and other empowerment skills through extra-curricular sessions.
“The crux of ROX is confident girls make better decisions, and that’s kind of the mission,” Korn said.
She said, if incorporated in the district, ROX would train female school staff members to become licensed facilitators. They’d then “implement the evidence-based programming” for girls at Canaan Middle School, JAJHS and Jonathan Alder High School.
Members of the board supported implementing ROX, but had questions about the program.
Foust asked if this would be available to other girls in the community besides those who sign up for the program, and Korn said they would be helped. She said girls taking ROX should be empowered enough to incorporate girls who might be too shy to participate.
“What I anticipate, and I think it’ll be a good problem to have, is we’ll have an influx of girls who want to be a ROX girl, seeing other peers enjoying it and wondering how they (can be a part of it),” Korn said.
Council member Steve Votaw asked if the community’s support coalition could be implemented into the program. Korn said because sensitive topics will be introduced in sessions, “we want to be thoughtful about who we choose and put into these roles.” She said it’s planned to keep the pool of facilitators small for now.
Votaw also asked if there would be assistance in the future for boys who experience the same issues. Korn said the data for “that girls’ index” of measured problems “doesn’t exist for boys necessarily.”
According to its website, the girls’ index is a “large-scale national survey designed to develop a deeper understanding of the thoughts, experiences, perceptions, beliefs, behaviors and attitudes of teen girls throughout the United States.”
“Of course I know those issues exist, but I think societally speaking, our society pits women against women in a different way,” Korn said.
Korn added, “I don’t disagree there will be pushback because it’s gender-specific.”
She said ROX started an initiative where men and boys support the program.
Also at the meeting, the board approved:
-Adopting Cengage/ National Geographic learning materials for its kindergarten to fourth grade science classes.
-Renewing its one-year electric services contract with Schneider Electric.
-Accepting a $5,000 “mini-grant” for the high school for “professional development, activities, instructional materials and resources for continued implementation of High Schools that Work.”
-The disposal and sale of old junior high and high school athletic uniforms as an initiative to fund cheerleader pom poms. The uniforms will be sold for $25, with one uniform covering the cost of a pair of pom poms. There are uniforms that date back as far as at least 1992, and they have been cleaned and pressed.
The board will meet again July 17.