DAYTON, Ky. -- Like many other districts grappling with questions of student safety in the wake of widespread school shootings, Dayton Independent Schools is taking a new approach to school security as the 2018-'19 academic year begins.
"Our kids and our staff are our most valuable resources, and we have to protect them as best we can," Dayton Independent Schools superintendent Jay Brewer said.
That protection includes giving the district's school resource officer a $3,000 raise -- "It's important to have someone who's armed on our campus," Brewer said -- and replacing locks across the district so many doors can be electronically sealed with a signal from a central key fob. When the signal goes out, staff members know they're in a lockdown.
Another new feature of the schools' increased security system is a set of automatic exterior doors that can only be opened when a badge is scanned.
"It used to be everyone had a key and often times those would be replicated at the general hardware store and you never knew who had those," Brewer said. "All of those have been replaced with the automatic key cards, which can be turned on and turned off within a minutes notice."
