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In an effort to ensure the safety of all students, faculty and staff, the Coffee County Board of Education approved the purchase of protective laminate to be installed in each of its school buildings during its regular meeting Sept. 11.

Assistant Director of Schools Kelvin Shores said during the meeting that discussion regarding the window laminate began following a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023.

“This is not a bullet proof laminate, but it is a laminate for the safety of our students, our faculty and our staff,” Shores said. “At all of our schools, we are looking at, if it is decided to go this direction, to go through a five-year phase process just because it is very pricey and also just getting the work done…”

Shores said it has been a challenge just to get a quote for the project, because the companies that do the installation work became very busy following the Covenant shooting.

In a 9-0 vote, board members approved a $364,928.22 bid submitted by Eversafe Security Solutions.

Shores said the number is for the initial phase of the project, which will include installation of the laminate in the main corridors of the district’s buildings as well as all the front main entrances and doors going into all classrooms.

“It is pricy, then we would be going back and looking at other parts to continue the process and finish it out,” he said.

The expected cost for each of the district’s buildings includes:

-Hillsboro School: $25,724.44

-Deerfield Elementary: $33,705.56

-East Coffee School: $14,134.67

-Koss Center: $2,975.78

-Coffee County Middle School: $60,782.67

-New Union Elementary School: $19,848.89

-North Coffee Elementary: $27,416.89

-Raider Academy: $28,683.78

-Hickerson Elementary: $16,202.22

-Central High School: $97,609.33

-Central Office: $6,424.00

– Total: 333,328.22

Board member Jennifer Peacock Hodge asked if there was any way the plan could be implemented faster than five years.

“We can speed it up,” Shores said. “One of the problems we are running into is the ones who are doing the work.”

Board member Freda K. Jones said she has heard both positives and negatives about the laminate at public schools.

“I have heard and seen people talk about, even police officers, that sometimes it is a detriment because when they come up to a building they can’t see what is going on,” Jones said.

Shores said the district had conversations with both Sheriff Chad Partin and the district’s SRO officer Sgt. Daniel Ray, and both support the installation of the laminate at Coffee County Schools.

Shores said rather than have a detailed plan regarding what schools will receive the laminate at what time, the idea is for no one to even know the work is being completed.

“The plan is for nobody to know that it is happening,” he said. “When they are taking care of it, it is not a hey this school is getting it done that school is getting it done, their goal is for them to not even know they are doing something.”