Beginning of the End?

Late yesterday afternoon a a group of six or eight people walked purposefully by my classroom door to the dead end just beyond. There they poked their heads into Heidi's new room and the room across from hers which has been occupied by our friend Laura since 1998, murmuring and taking measurements. As I watched through the inside windows, Heidi came through the door. "What are they doing in my classroom?" she asked with alarm.

Just then, the assistant principal passed by, and never one to be shy, she stepped into the hall and asked him the same question.

"You're killing me!" I heard her say. "I just moved in there!"

"It was always going to be for just one year," he said, which was news to her-- it's taken the whole week to get the place put together and ready for students.

"It's security," I heard him explain. "In most other schools you can't get into the building without going through the office."

It was only 5 or 6 years ago that they locked all the doors, and gave staff key cards to a few entrances. All visitors have to be buzzed in, but our building is a mixed use facility, and the main entrance opens onto a large lobby with a community theater on the left and a hallway that leads to the main office and school on the right. Evidently, that's too much space: people can get buzzed in and slip into the school, bypassing the office. 

My eyebrow is raised here, too-- wouldn't the buzzer be aware if the buzzee never made it to the office? Ideally, yes, but I also know how many honest distractions there are in any given school day. Practically speaking, in the absence of is a dedicated door monitor, making visitors enter into the office is the best way to keep track of them.

And so, the powers that be have decided that the best way to secure our school is to cut through brick to create a whole new entrance and move the main office right to where Heidi and Laura's classrooms are. And although it was not directly mentioned, I really don't think there's a plan that saves my classroom, either.