The Putnam County School Board has approved moving forward a bid request for protective window film on all school buildings across the district.
Putnam County Deputy Director of Schools Tim Martin said protective window film is a safety measure that the school system has been eyeing for quite some time. Martin said the state has recommended that schools install the protective film after the Covenant School shooting in Nashville.
“What it does is if somebody tries to shoot through a window, it won’t stop a bullet from coming through a window, but it will keep the glass from breaking out so that an intruder couldn’t walk through that window and get into the school building,” Martin said.
Martin said state law requires protective window film on main entrances for schools built after the legislation was passed. While none of Putnam County’s schools are currently required to install the film, he said the district plans to move toward compliance with the standard.
“We don’t really have any buildings that fall under that category right now, but we would like to do that same thing with our buildings,” Martin said. “They say that the research shows that most intruders are going to come to the main entrance and not try to sneak around or not gonna crawl through the window.”
Martin said installing the film will be a significant investment, estimating the cost at about $15 per square foot. He said the school system is requesting bids now after applying for a grant of up to $500,000 that could help offset a portion of the expense.
“I’m not always right in my estimates of what the bids would be, so we will just have to see what the cost is and then whether or not we get the grant and how much we can do,” Martin said.
Martin said bids have not been sent out yet, but expects the board to review them next month.