Superintendent Mike Fournier told the Bedford School Board on Aug. 25 that a homeland-security review of district buildings found substantial improvements in access control, emergency alerting and surveillance, but noted remaining blind spots and a set of recommended upgrades that may require budget decisions.

Fournier said the district has completed many prioritized items supported by the security bond: door locks, main-entrance buzzer systems and some first-floor security film. He said sprinkler-system rules enabled certain interclassroom doors to be locked and that door-propping policies, buzzer systems and floor plans for first responders are in place. Fournier also said stop-the-bleed kits are in each school and near AEDs, though the Homeland Security team recommended kits in every classroom; Fournier said the district is not yet prepared to place a kit in every classroom because of cost and supply constraints — kits run roughly $20–$30 each.

On access control, Fournier said the district is completing fob-card readers on external doors and prioritizing high-need doors (for example, commons areas that allow outdoor access). He said some exterior doors still lack fob readers but installations are underway.

Surveillance has improved, Fournier said, but blind spots remain; the technology director is cataloging gaps and will propose budget items to address them. Board members asked whether RAIN (a separate review) had overlapping findings; Fournier said RAIN primarily focused on lighting near fields and exterior lighting at night and did not duplicate the homeland-security walkthrough.

The board discussed potential motion sensors for buildings; administration estimated a ballpark $50,000 request for such programming during budget season and noted the need to coordinate schedules for after-hours users (athletic events, janitorial access) so sensors are not triggered inappropriately.

Fournier said the district recently completed testing of the emergency pull-station system to provide automated alerts with an image of the station location to police, fire and administrators. The Homeland Security reports themselves were described as limited-release under RSA because they contain security-sensitive information; board members may review the full reports, but the documents will not be publicly released.

The board asked administration to continue prioritizing fob installations and to bring specific budget requests for surveillance gap fixes and motion-sensor programming during budget deliberations.