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Millions Spent On School Renovations Include Upgrades For Security

WAMC
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  To ease concerns about school shootings, millions of dollars were spent this summer on security in the second largest public school district in Massachusetts.

   Locks on exterior and interior doors in Springfield’s 60 school buildings have been upgraded and more surveillance cameras have been added.  

    Superintendent of Schools Dan Warwick said the buildings are more secure now than ever before.

   "We have invested well and I think the parents can be assured their kids will be safe," Warwick said in an interview Thursday.

    The city said a total of $45 million will be spent this new academic year on school renovations. The work includes new windows at some buildings, roof replacements, upgrades to heating systems, and complete makeovers to auditoriums and gymnasiums.

     Much of the work is being paid for the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Paul Tuthill is WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief. He’s been covering news, everything from politics and government corruption to natural disasters and the arts, in western Massachusetts since 2007. Before joining WAMC, Paul was a reporter and anchor at WRKO in Boston. He was news director for more than a decade at WTAG in Worcester. Paul has won more than two dozen Associated Press Broadcast Awards. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for reporting on veterans’ healthcare for WAMC in 2011. Born and raised in western New York, Paul did his first radio reporting while he was a student at the University of Rochester.