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Granite Falls School District to adopt visitor ID/badge system for buildings
Summary
Superintendent Dana Keyes presented a plan to implement a visitor management system that scans government IDs, issues time-limited visitor badges and interfaces with the district's Skyward system and an offender database; staff training and recurring service fees were discussed.
The Granite Falls School District plans to implement a new visitor management system that will require vendors, visitors and volunteers to scan a government-issued ID and receive a time-limited badge when entering school buildings, Superintendent Dana Keyes said during the board meeting.
Keyes described the system as a way to "streamline the process" and to ensure adults in buildings display an identifiable badge. She said the badge "actually turns color by after 24 hours, so you can't wear it day after day after day" and that the system will interface with the district's Skyward student information system to prevent individuals who are restricted from visiting from entering school buildings. The vendor systems the district reviewed also include a screening against a real-time offender database.
Keyes told the board the district reviewed multiple vendors, that neighboring districts such as Lake Stevens and Arlington use similar systems, and that the solution carries up-front purchase costs plus an annual service fee. She said building secretaries will be trained to operate the system.
During discussion a board member asked whether the system would expedite background checks for parents who help at schools; Keyes said there is an interface that "could help with that." Trustees also raised a hypothetical about a parent with a no‑contact order for one child who has another child at a different school; Keyes said such adults would still need to check in and the system would not bypass check-in requirements.
Keyes said the district plans to order the system, train staff and begin implementation with building secretaries who will use it most. The transcript records the presentation and questions but does not record specific vendor names, contract amounts or a firm implementation start date.
