Schools in the Aspen School District in Colorado will be switching from a paper-based visitor management system to an electronic one, the district announced recently.
The new system, which will cost approximately $4,500, will allow school officials to scan visitors through the national sex offender registry, reports The Aspen Times.
The existing system requires visitors to write their name and license plate number in a a paper log.
The district’s elementary school will install the new system on Monday, followed by the two middle schools sometime in November or December. The district’s high school is hoping to implement the system by the beginning of next semester.
“The safety of our students and staff is our highest priority and we trust it is yours as well,” Aspen Elementary School Principal Chris Basten wrote in an email to parents last week announcing the changes.
Basten also wrote that the system will provide a safer campus for students and staff by improving the school’s ability “to track visitors, volunteers, and contractors in our school.”
The Raptor Visitor Management System from Raptor Technologies was chosen by district officials for the upgrade.
“We spent a lot of time looking at systems and we really thought [Raptor] was the best one, and I think the school made a great move by modernizing it so the people don’t have to come in, write in a book, and get a name tag,” Pitkin County Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Hufnagle, who teaches and works as a school resource officer at Aspen High School, said. “It can all be done automated and takes a lot of the work off the receptionists.”
With the Raptor system, visitors entering the school will be required to give their driver’s license or passport to a receptionist, who will scan the ID through the system. The system compares the visitor’s name, date of birth and photo with the national database of sex offenders.
Additional data from the driver’s license is not collected and the system is not connected to other systems such as the Department of Motor Vehicles, according to Aspen School District Superintendent Dr. John Maloy.
Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent’s Office Angela Rittenhouse said the security upgrade is a proactive measure.
”We want to make sure to be as prepared as we can be,” Rittenhouse said.
