Recently, there has been much talk about upcoming plans to construct a fence around the courtyard. The new courtyard fence was originally planned to be set up during the summer of this year, but it has now been pushed to the upcoming winter break. However, that date is also not confirmed.
According to Principal Bill Dunbar, the fence will be a black, architectural fence. It will have multiple wide gates, which will be left open during the school day, allowing students to pass in and out freely. The gates will only be closed after hours, or if a situation calls for closure of the gate. A situation being, for example, in Dunbar’s words: “something’s happening on Aurora, but we don’t want to lock down.” This way, the school building can be secured without disrupting the school day, if such disruption is not necessary.
The new fence has become a hot topic at Shorewood, but what you may not know is that this “new” fence has actually been a planned feature of the school building since the planning of its construction in 2014. In fact, multiple of the upcoming security updates have been intended since the beginning, according to Dunbar. A so-called “second layer” of the fencing will reach out to the bus loop, and a fence wrapping around the entire Shorewood campus is expected in the far future. The proposal for these upgrades, believe it or not, is nothing new. Shorewood personnel and the city of Shoreline decided on them a decade ago, when the school was being rebuilt.
In addition to fencing, other security updates are ahead. The main entrance will be remodeled; rather than walking into the commons and around to enter the office, people entering our school will be able to enter immediately through a doorway that will be installed in the entryway. The purpose of this change is to increase safety by bringing guests directly into the office, as opposed to them setting foot inside the main school area.
The front entrance will be equipped with a buzz-in/buzz-out camera system, similar to systems implemented in other Shoreline schools, that will allow administrators to keep tabs on anyone who enters. According to Dunbar, this security upgrade, in conjunction with the updated office entrance, will allow school personnel to “check [visitors] out on two levels.” The timeframe for these updates is “TBD,” Dunbar says.
How do these safety upgrades, and the current state of our school, compare to the Shorewood of the past? Before its rebuilding in 2014, Shorewood was what Dunbar called a “California Campus” – everything was all on one floor. With the school covering a massive amount of land if a potentially dangerous situation were to occur on one end of the building, it could take an unacceptable amount of time for the rest of the school to know of the incident. Another unsafe feature was the exterior doors in every classroom, similar to the setup of some Shoreline elementary schools.
That being said, Shorewood has gone through security upgrades at a natural, predicted rate; that is, the rate of which Shoreline has turned from a town into a city.
During the planning process for our school’s reconstruction, city officials and Shorewood personnel anticipated a large growth in Shoreline’s population density and traffic. The school was planned with “safety and security in mind,” and according to Dunbar, aims to account for “Aurora and Shoreline becoming more urban” and Shoreline having “more people,” thus becoming “more of a city.”
A prime example would be the crosswalk on 175th St, outside of Shorewood. Originally, that was merely a crosswalk; no button to press, no flashing lights. However, the urbanization of Shoreline and the expected appearance of the Sound Transit Light Rail increased traffic in the area. Therefore, changes were made to keep the Shorewood community safe.
That same principle applies to all of the upcoming security upgrades. As the city of Shoreline grows, Shorewood High School grows along with it. The fence around the courtyard, along with the other planned features, are happening for that reason.
