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Clover district installs weapons detectors at high school after $100,000 seed funding; district sought but did not receive DOJ grant
Summary
Administrators reported purchase and phased deployment of portable weapons-detection ‘open gate’ lanes at Clover High School and middle schools using a $100,000 district safety allocation; officials said a Department of Justice grant application was unsuccessful.
Doctor Quinn told the board that the district allocated $100,000 in seed money this year for safety initiatives, and Doctor Hopkins reported on the district’s work to add weapons detectors at secondary schools.
Doctor Hopkins said district staff evaluated several vendors and chose the CHA (open gate) system. The district purchased two lanes in October and had them in use at Clover High School for limited, random checks and at basketball games; Hopkins said the cost was about $18,000 per lane at the time of order. He said handheld detectors ordered to accompany the lane units arrived and additional lanes were expected to arrive the next day, bringing the district total to five lanes: three assigned to Clover High School and one to each of the two middle schools.
“We began looking at lots of weapons detector systems last spring after an incident,” Doctor Hopkins said. “These are being used the exact same way as our old walk-through detectors but are easier to operate.”
Funding and grants: Hopkins said the district applied for a Department of Justice grant with a vendor’s help but did not receive the award. The district did secure a smaller state grant of about $7,000 and used the board-approved $100,000 line item to buy the initial units. The district owns the detectors and purchased them outright; Hopkins said the devices come with support for about four years.
Operations and staffing: Board members asked about personnel needs if multiple lanes are deployed at once. Hopkins said using lanes for random checks or event screening requires several staffers (administrators and the SRO) to direct students, monitor the unit lights, and conduct secondary searches when alarms occur. He said full-time screening of all entrances throughout the day would be “counterproductive” without additional personnel, but the gates can be used on a rotating basis or for events.
Scope and capability: Hopkins said the system can detect small metal items and can be configured for sensitivity; the lanes are weatherproof and are used outdoors at other venues such as professional sports events. He said the district continues to pursue grant opportunities and plans to request another line item in next year’s budget to add more detectors.
No formal vote occurred on purchasing at the meeting; Hopkins provided the update and answered questions from board members.
