WILMINGTON — Wilmington City Schools recently completed another safety projects part of their continuing security initiatives to keep students and staff safe.

They were able to reconfigure the main entrance to the high school. By closing off access to the main hall from the front door during school hours, and adding a doorway to the office, all visitor traffic is now routed through the main office, according to a news release from the district.

This improvement will go a long way toward ensuring the continued safety of staff members and students.

Director of Business Operations Curt Bone, Buildings & Grounds Supervisor Jim Schutte and the WCS maintenance and custodial staff worked hard to plan, prepare, and complete the project with minimal disruption to the student day. Seventy-five percent of the project was paid for with money from a Safety Grant.

The recent change at WHS complements the new visitor screening program from Raptor that WCS implemented in all five schools this past fall.

Raptor, a background checking software, scans visitors’ IDs before they can go beyond a school’s main office. The system checks the ID information against sex-offender registries in all 50 states, and a customizable database created by the district.

WCS is trying to adapt aging buildings to the needs of current day school and societal environments.

“The district is studying each of our buildings to look at the feasibility of modifying entrances to improve security,” said Bone. “Some solutions are more complicated and require extended study and planning.

“We hope to complete more projects soon.”

The middle school is their newest building, having opened in 1993. The high school was built approximately 60 years ago with various additions and renovations over the years. Holmes was built in the early 1960s, and Denver in the ’50s. The oldest building in the district, East End, is nearly 100 years old.