More Cherokee schools to get security foyers

The Cherokee County School Board has approved spending $641,000 to install security foyers at 15 more elementary and middle schools. AJC FILE

The Cherokee County School Board has approved spending $641,000 to install security foyers at 15 more elementary and middle schools. AJC FILE

The Cherokee County School Board has accelerated the installation of security foyers by approving 15 more schools to receive them.

The school board approved a $641,000 proposal from Womack, Lewis & Smith to install the foyers in the coming year at Avery, Bascomb, Boston, Clayton, Hickory Flat, Johnston, Macedonia, Mountain Road and Sixes elementary schools, and Creekland, E.T. Booth, Freedom, Mill Creek, Teasley and Woodstock middle schools.

When the latest work is finished, only seven schools, with more challenging designs to retrofit, will lack the foyers, officials said.

“We’ve made it a priority to complete these foyers at a faster pace to further secure more of our schools,” said schools Superintendent Brian V. Hightower.

The district’s Safety and Security Ad Hoc Committee convened again following the Parkland, Fla., school shooting incident and in May recommended the speeded-up construction of security foyers, as well as hiring additional police officers and installing buzz-in systems at the main entrances of high schools.