Contracts totaling more than $161,000 for the purchase and installation of locking hardware for all classroom doors at Lindbergh High School and Sperreng Middle School recently were awarded by the Lindbergh Board of Education.
Board members voted unanimously Jan. 8 to seek bids for locking hardware for all classroom doors at the two schools — less than a month after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six adults died.
Locking hardware will be required for roughly 327 classroom doors at Lindbergh High School and Sperreng Middle Schools.
Once installed, all of the district’s schools will have locking classroom doors, according to Executive Director of Planning and Development Karl Guyer.
In a memo, Guyer recommended the Board of Education “approves the low bidder Comarco St. Louis Inc. for the installation of the door locks per bid requirements not to exceed $62,940 and the district purchase locksets and removable cores/keys from A1 Lock Co. for $98,128.25 for a project cost not to exceed $161,068.25 total.”
The board voted unanimously Feb. 12 to approve Guyer’s recommendation. Funds for the purchase and installation of the locking hardware will come from district reserves, according to Guyer.
Board members also agreed to repay the reserve fund the $161,068.25 cost over a three-year period.
Board member Karen Schuster amended the original motion to award the contracts to include the repayment provision.
“ When I look at this, this is obviously a good improvement to make to the schools, but I don’t consider it an emergency,” she said.
Schuster’s amendment also was approved with a unanimous vote.
“In mid-March, as soon as door-strike plates arrive, work will be started on the existing door frames to cut rough openings and install the plates,” Guyer wrote in the memo. “The installation will be performed by two workers during the hours of 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. each day. It is expected that all of the locks for both schools will be completed by the end of May.”
