Nebraskan High School Installs Security Doors

Nebraskan High School Installs Security Doors

“These new doors are heavy, they’re solid, they’re fire-rated and the windows are security glass,” Principal Jordan Engle said.

  • By Jessica Davis
  • January 11, 2019

Grand Island Central Catholic School has installed 25 new security doors to improve safety on campus.

According to Principal Jordan Engle, the school replaced every classroom door, a few doors that “were in pretty bad shape,” a locker room door and a door to the school’s auditorium.

Engle told The Grand Island Independent that the new doors replaced the original doors installed when the GICC campus was built in the late 1950s. Those doors were very lightweight and were not fire resistant.

“These new doors are heavy, they’re solid, they’re fire-rated and the windows are security glass,” Engle said. “The narrower window is what you would typically see in a school or a hospital. The reason being is that if we shut that door, you can always see out, but it is harder to see in because of the narrower point of reference.”

The new doors also feature metal kickplates at the bottom. Engle said the kickplates will help the doors stay in good shape as time goes on, since doors are sometimes opened with a foot rather than a hand.

“The knobs on these doors are for safety as well,” Engle said. “They do not have an unlock mode, so you only have a key to entry to the classrooms, which is a very big safety measure that a lot of schools are taking right now. This is a big deal for us in terms of school safety.”

The total cost of the new security doors was about $25,000, according to Engle. The doors were purchased using some of the funds raised by the GICC Development Foundation during its 2018 Go Big Give campaign.

GICC Development Foundation Executive Director Brenda Branstiter said the organization is glad some of its funds raised went toward the installation of the new doors.

“I think this is great because our student safety is very important,” she said. “It was definitely needed, so it was great to put that first.”

About the Author

Jessica Davis is the Associate Content Editor for 1105 Media.

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