Ever since North Atlanta High School was formed, the students have been entering the building through the front doors, going through bag checks before they head to the first period. However, due to a new hush-hush construction project in the front office, students have been forced to enter through the third floor instead. This has caused massive lines to form, making students late to class and disrupting the usual and already tiresome bag check process. Due to these inconveniences, North Atlanta has decided to stop the construction and move the project until June 1, 2025. For the time being, concrete poles stand tall in the middle of the front office and many wonder what’s going on behind the scenes.
Though details of this new project have been kept relatively quiet, it has been confirmed that a new glass security box will be installed inside the school. This includes a new front office and multiple checkpoints before someone enters the school. The school is also going to put a keypad on the third-floor entrance, only allowing teachers with keycards to come in and out. This project has been built at every Atlanta Public School as an initiative to protect the students and staff. With bullet-proof glass and the numerous checkpoints manually done by the front desk personnel, North Atlanta is one-upping their security. Most schools already have this built like at Jackson Elementary and has been a huge success. Security Officer Kyle Stephan goes to Jackson Elementary during the afternoons to help with the dismissal process and he said, “It works wonderfully at Jackson and I am excited to see these changes here.”
Since the construction is paused until the summer to make it easier for the students and staff to get in and out of the building, students won’t see the changes for a while. There were some delays, but the new changes will be visible to all on August first. With new construction, there will be some changes starting the 2025-26 school year. The front office is going to be moved inside the new security “room” and that space will be used for something new. Students can no longer move freely from the parking garage and third-floor entrance as they will need a staff keycard. All of these changes are being done to help make North Atlanta a more secure and safe place with nearly 3,000 students and staff coming into the school every day. However, nobody knows how bag checks are going to take place with this new room as security knows that it will have to be downsized, they just don’t know how small. For right now, there should be room for two tables instead of four at bag check, which any carpooler and drivers know backs up the line every morning. Stephan said, “We won’t know how the bag check is run until everything is built to see how much space will be left.”
As all the Dubs are enjoying their summer far, far away from the eleven floored building, the lobby will be in the process of transformation to a more secure state. While the next year may start with some tensions, the priority of safety and security of students and staff remains the top concern.
