Naperville Central is the first school to implement new door locks as part of a plan to update buildings throughout District 203.

”We have a lot of buildings that are of different ages. We always maintain our facility top to bottom [and] we decided it was time to do a refresh on our door locks throughout,” said Louis Cammiso, director of safety and security at District 203.

District 203 had planned to upgrade their locks earlier but were delayed by supply chain issues caused by COVID-19. 

Previously, staff would have to leave their classrooms in order to lock the door, but the new locks can be secured from both the outside and inside. Another change is that the locks will display if they are locked or unlocked on the inside of a classroom. 

“They’re industrial grade door locks and they’re very strong, they’ll be durable for many years,” Cammiso said. “And there’s the safety part of it by having the visual inspection of if it’s locked and the thumb latch to lock it. They also all have handles. Some of our door locks just had the knobs and that may be difficult for some staff and students to use.”

Carrie McFadden, Assistant Principal for Operations at Naperville Central, likes the change and said that it is unlikely to affect any of Central’s procedures. 

“I have heard from a couple of teachers that they are very happy with [the change],” McFadden said.  “Mostly that it’s clear whether it’s locked or unlocked and that it can be locked from inside.”

The district’s Building and Grounds department is responsible for managing the implementation of the locks and they aim to finish the installation of the locks as quickly as possible. 

“It’s not just as easy as bolting on a new door lock,” Cammiso said. “It may require some other fitting including a whole new door, so it is really hard to give an estimate of [when we would finish.] We of course want to do it as quickly as possible. The district invested in hiring extra staff for this project, and that staff is working second shifts in the afternoons and the evenings so as to not disturb classrooms.”

At first, McFadden was concerned about the new locks, but she is now happy with the upgrade.

“When I first heard about it I didn’t get a clear description of it,” McFadden said. “I was like, ‘which side shows it’s locked? If it’s on the outside, then this is the worst idea you can think of.’ So when they first installed it, I’m like, ‘alright, I gotta go up and see this thing because I’ve been worrying. Somebody didn’t make a silly choice, did they?’ And no, they didn’t.”