TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—The Westwood Regional School District board has voted, 5–4, to approve spending more than $1 million to install security vestibules at each of five district schools to help prevent unauthorized access.
Voting in favor March 4 were Maureen Columbo, Andrew Gerstmyer, Roberta Hanlon, Matthew Perrapato and Joseph Abou-Dauod.
Voting against were Michael Pontillo, Stacey Price, Frank Romano and Michelle Sembler. The vote was tabled Feb. 25 when new trustees asked for more time to review the security project’s details. Even so, the vote followed 90 minutes of often-heated exchanges between one trustee, the board’s business administrator, and the board president.
The district includes six schools in Washington Township and Westwood, including a regional junior/senior high school, a regional middle school under renovation, and four elementary schools.
Trustee Michael Pontillo—also Westwood’s chief of police— criticized the proposal at the Feb. 25 school board meeting. On March 4 he again called the $1,041,000,00 expenditure “a feel-good measure, it’s a kneejerk. It’s really not going to make anyone safer.”
He also asked why Business Administrator Keith Rosado did not note a $28,000 price difference from a previously quoted $1,013,000 estimate. Rosado allowed that he had added up the costs incorrectly but that the new, higher figure posted was accurate.
Pontillo said 90% of classrooms would not be protected by installing so-called “man-trap” or double-security doors, and said the proposed doors were “easily defeatable.”
The vestibule upgrades will only focus on each schools’ main entryway and work to prevent visitors and potential bad actors from gaining entrance to the schools, proponents said.
APS Contracting of Paterson, which submitted the lowest reasonable bid, said vestibule upgrades will cost $83,000 at Berkeley Elementary School, $242,000 for Brookside Elementary School, $192,000 for Jessie George Elementary School, $221,000 for Washington Elementary School, and $305,000 for Westwood Regional Jr./Sr. High School.
The changes in some schools will include upgrades to floor tiles, ceilings, and lighting.
Pontillo went round and round with Rosado while trying to get Rosado to produce ballistic resistance specifications for glass panels to be installed inside the vestibules. Rosado said such questions need to be asked in advance of the meeting to give him time to find the answer.
While Pontillo pressed him and others for answers about the glass panels’ specifications, trustee Andrew Gerstmayr said he was sure the installed units would do the job, based on meetings with the board’s security committee.
Pontillo pointed out the glass’s bullet-resistance capability should have a major impact on the security project’s cost. He repeatedly pointed out that no one, including trustees, knew the real resistance of the vestibules’ glass.
Rosado said that he knows what the glass was rated, but could not provide an answer that night. He, and several other trustees, suggested it was proper to give administrators enough time to prepare responses for detailed questions to be posed at the meetings.
“Apparently no one knows the ballistic specs of the vestibule doors,” said Pontillo, at several points. Pontillo noted he previously asked Rosado for funding remaining to allow in-person classes to resume and got no answer.
“Every time I ask for something I don’t get an answer. Why is that?” Pontillo said to Rosado, noting he’s only been on the board three months. Perrapato, the board’s president, redirected the discussion to the security vestibule doors resolution.
Superintendent Raymond González began the special meeting on the security vestibules’ vote by noting that a state School Boards Association Security Task Force, convened in the wake of Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting—which killed 17 students, including a Pascack Valley native, and injured 17 others—had recommended schools get such doors.
Moreover, González said, the recommendation was run through the board’s architect, administration, and superintendent, business office, and Buildings and Grounds Committee.
[History: See “School security in focus: local officials pressed on safety; students to protest,” Pascack Press, Feb. 26, 2018.]
He told Pontillo that generally board members are not provided the level of detail that Pontillo was asking for and that that was “a microlevel detail.”
Pontillo, and several trustees, agreed that the sum might be better spent on returning kids to school in fall. He agreed with trustee Michelle Sembler who noted the funds could be used for trailers for teaching, and to help reduce class sizes for children returning to school.
Sembler said the “best value for our money” would be to hire Class III special law enforcement officers, known as SLEOs, to monitor every school. SLEOs are retired police officers, generally armed, who are paid a salary but no benefits or a pension.
She said security vestibules were “not the best bang for our buck when it comes to the safety and security of our kids.”
Pontillo called the expenditure “an absolute waste of money” and he said the new board should make its own mind up about the proposal even though budget funds were put aside last year by trustees for the cost.
“The timing’s wrong, it’s a new day, there’s Covid and they’re returning to school and that should be our priority—and we shouldn’t be doing this,” added Pontillo.
He said that although he was Westwood police chief in April 2018, when the vestibule security upgrades were first discussed, he was not consulted.
Rosado told Pascack Press that the $1,041,000 project would be funded with $341,345 from the 2020 operating budget and a $699,655 withdrawal from capital reserve.
Trustee Maureen Columbo said though the $1 million price tag appeared high, she believes the vestibule doors will provide “peace of mind” by having two entryway blocks to prevent an intruder from entering a school. She said the new security vestibules will “help stop somebody from coming through and buys us some time … it makes us feel safer and if it saves a life, it’s worth it.”
Trustee Stacey Price said her main concern was protecting each school’s front door, but noted that as a new board member, she was not involved in the initial conversations for the security vestibules. She said rather than the security doors, bringing students and teachers back safely “may be a better focus for our time.”
Trustee Andrew Gerstmyer said he was “confident” in the process that led to initiating the security vestibules project. Trustee Michelle Sembler said she found it “a bit frustrating” being a new member dealing with a complicated security issue but said she appreciated the history and details provided by the administration.
González said school security has been discussed since his arrival in 2015 when a site assessment was conducted by the state education department. He said the idea for security vestibule doors was to provide two sets of doors that allow entry into a building, allowing for secure checking of identifications for staff and visitors.
He also noted the need for security upgrades was not taking priority over returning to school planning or needs, as at least two trustees alleged.
Moreover, the district and superintendent have been under pressure for months from parents to reopen schools soon as more districts surrounding Westwood regional have recently reopened to in-person classes.