Evergreen Elementary teachers want doors locked during school hours

Evergreen Elementary teachers want the school district office to lock its doors for security. So far, their fight has been an uphill battle.

The entire teaching staff of Evergreen Elementary signed a letter last month imploring the school board to make several safety changes. The teachers want to better protect students and staff against hostile intruders and potential school shooters.

The teachers requested that the district office doors, which provide entry to the classroom area, remain locked during school hours. They also requested a buzzer system to regulate school visitors.

The teachers also claimed that they have made “repeated requests to Superintendent Bill Burr” — as well as to the rotating cast of principals that have administered the elementary school over the past several years. In their letter, which was presented to the school board at its Oct. 7 meeting, the teachers said their concerns “have not been adequately addressed.”

According to the teachers, school administrators informed them that installation of a buzzer system would be too costly. Administrators told the teachers they approached borough officials on this matter, the teachers said.

The Sentinel reached out to Mayor Patty Gilbert, Borough Manager Mason Villarma and previous Borough Manager Jeff Good who served from 2021 to fall 2023. All three denied that school administrators ever approached them to explore the economic feasibility of a buzzer system. Good even said it was the other way around.

“We were actually the ones that brought it up with them,” he said. “We approached the school to see how we could help with student safety.”

The borough owns the school building, but the school district is responsible for all operations.

Elementary school teachers said what spurred their letter to the school board was a safety recommendation by a Wrangell police officer last school year.

“We did a walkthrough with a police officer and his suggestion was that the district office doors be locked,” one teacher said. This teacher also noted that the superintendent was present for that recommendation, “and yet the doors remain unlocked.”

Despite only starting the job in July, Police Chief Gene Meek has already made a similar observation.

“It’s obvious there needs to be increased security at the schools,” Meek said. “School shootings happen. Sadly, they aren’t ifs but whens.”

The district office connects directly to the classrooms, cafeteria and offices of Evergreen Elementary, so anyone who walks in those doors gains access to the entire school. Though administrators have not changed the door-lock policy, there has been recent forward momentum on the student safety front.

On Oct. 14, Meek led a two-hour hostile intruder training for the elementary school teachers. He said the allocated two hours were far too short a time, and he wants to meet one-on-one with every teacher to identify effective strategies to protect against school shooters. Strategically, Meek is meeting the teachers in their respective classrooms, so he can provide each teacher with specific recommendations according to their classroom space.

In 2019, the school district received a grant from the National Rifle Association for two steel doors. For the past five years, those doors have been left uninstalled. However, the school district’s maintenance director, Kevin McCallister, wants to install those doors as soon as possible.

The recent letter is not the first time the teachers have made safety improvement requests to the school board. In 2018, the Wrangell Teachers Association requested four changes: continued active shooter training; community, teacher and parent input into safety policies; access to nonlethal countermeasures for teachers; and frequent reports on the school district’s firearms policy.

According to the Center for Homeland Security, there have been 723 school shootings nationwide since 2018, the year the teachers union made their request. In that same time, Wrangell teachers lost their access to ALICE training (a hostile intruder response program), they have received no nonlethal countermeasures, and Evergreen staff believe their subsequent requests have fallen flat.

One reason teachers said they feel so frustrated by what they see as a cycle of ignored requests is the simplicity of simply locking a door.

“In today’s world, where safety concerns are ever-present, it is essential that we take proactive measures to protect our school community. Locking the district office doors during school hours will provide an additional layer of security, helping to keep our students and staff safe,” the teachers wrote in their letter to the board.

“It’s incredibly insulting,” one teacher said. “We’re trying to meet them halfway. We provided a costless solution in the meantime, and to still not have anything done … that is insulting.”

In response to the teachers letter, Board President Dave Wilson said at the school board meeting: “It’s been referred to the administration.”

Superintendent Bill Burr declined to comment for this story.