ASCENSION PARISH – Every class day, hundreds of people walk through school buildings including students, staff and parents. The school board is focusing on keeping those people safe.

“You don't always know who is coming into the front door, and you want to make sure you know who they are before you let them into the school,” said Director of Planning and Commission for the school board, Chad Lynch.

During Tuesday night’s meeting, the Ascension Parish School Board approved construction contracts for two phases of a district-wide lobby renovation project. This will allow the district to update up to 10 more school lobbies, making them more secure.

“The main change is the separation between a glass wall,” said Lynch.

Ten lobbies out of a total of 28 campuses already have this update, which includes a visitor vetting system, modified entrance doors and now a glass separator between the receptionist and the guest.

“Once we built the first one of these, other receptionists would approach me and say when is mine coming,” said Lynch.

All of the security measures make a ‘true access control point,’ the school district's goal. Lynch expects all campus lobbies will be updated by this fall. They're also working to add security fencing and electronic access controls.

These projects are part of the $3 million school security updates funded by the bond taxpayers voted on in 2016.