On a 4-3 vote, the Haines Borough school board on Tuesday approved a new, electronic security program for tracking visitors to the Haines School, including printed badges for school-day visitors and an instant alarm notifying administrators of “unwanted visitors.”

The Hall Pass School Visitor Management System will cost $1,365. It advertises that it “instantly compares school visitor identification data against our integrated, comprehensive database of sex offender registries for every state and the District of Columbia. When a known sex offender is detected, Hall Pass sends instantaneous alerts preventing access for these predators.”

The system logs arrivals and departures by visitors and student tardy data and stores information about custody care, court order and parental requests.

The program – which replaces a former policy of requiring school visitors to sign in and wear a lanyard identifying them as visitors – was endorsed by district administrators, including superintendent Ginger Jewell, who was attending her first official board meeting.

Principal Cheryl Stickler said the change “was about following protocols that have to be updated for the world in which we live.” In the event of a lawsuit, schools need to offer “what a reasonable person would expect to be in place in a public school in this day and age,” she said.

Jewell said the system addressed a variety of safety issues. “God forbid the building burns down and I can’t say who was inside my building.”

Still, many board members voiced apprehensions. Members Scott Doddridge, Sarah Swinton and Brian Clay voted against the system. “I totally see the arguments and rationale. It’s just a little more than I’m ready for at this point,” Doddridge said.

Even board supporters of the change described it as feeling “creepy,” “scary” and “uncomfortable,” and urged administrators to work with the public in starting it up.

“I don’t like the Big Brother feel, and I don’t like the (surveillance) cameras everywhere, but we’re in charge of risk management and this is where we’re going. I expect to use something like this in a public environment,” said supporter Brenda Josephson.

Josephson said if the system proves unworkable, the district could always go back to paper. “The more discussion we have, the more we’ll work through the uncomfortableness.”

Also at the meeting, the board heard no one has applied for the district’s food services manager position formerly held by Gen Armstrong. Superintendent Jewell said the district needed a person for the job with a four-year degree in nutrition or wellness, in part to keep up with federal mandates for the program.

“It’s not a matter of whether you can cook and enter data. It’s way beyond that,” Jewell said.

Jewell also told the board she has phoned “the vast majority” of parents of district students in the past three weeks “in an effort to build relationships and trust.”

In an interview after the meeting, Jewell said she told parents she “wanted to hear the good and the bad.” She said she heard “overwhelming positive feedback. I think most people were just floored that I was on the other side of the line.”

Jewell said some parents had concerns about their children having trouble in certain subjects, and that other parents wanted their children to be more engaged and challenged. Parents also are concerned that the district might cut certain activities, she said.

She said there were no comments about school discipline that she could recall. “I was just trying to get ears on the ground and more information about the community in general.” Jewell said she also has been attending borough and chamber of commerce meetings.

“I’m still trying to formulate my outreach. You don’t want to be intrusive, but you still want to know… I try to listen,” she said.

Also Tuesday, the board voted to move ahead with a proposal by alumna Cara Murray to decorate the middle panel of a school retaining wall on Main Street. Resident Debra Schnabel gifted the district $5,000 for artwork there. A board committee will approve Murray’s final design.

The board also approved an electronic punch clock system for tracking hours of classified employees.