From Texas Public Radio:
On a beautiful, warm fall day, Jeanette Ball, the superintendent of the Judson Independent School District, stood outside the back entrance to one of her district’s elementary schools and pointed to the free-standing gym a few yards away.
“Usually both of these (doors) are open, and anybody could come in,” Ball said, pointing to large garage-like doors. “It’s easy access to the kids, so this is why we would want our gym to be air conditioned.”
A P.E. class was in full swing as she spoke, with the sound of children’s shouts and the squeak of shoes pushing against the floor drifting out from the gym’s open doors. The doors are kept open to let cool air in.
If voters approve Judson’s bond on Nov. 8, Ball will be able to install air conditioning in school gyms and keep those gym doors closed.
She also wants to add key card locks to all school entrances, cameras at front entrances so secretaries can see who they’re buzzing inside, and a universal locking system that would lock all school doors with a touch of a button.
“We knew we knew that we needed a bond, because that’s why we did it a year ago,” Ball said. “But with the tragic event that happened in Uvalde, it certainly created a sense of urgency that we needed to go for the bond again, sooner rather than later.”