The campus-wide lockdown shelter-in-place drill on Wednesday, May 3 will feature improvements that intend to shorten drill time and improve overall student safety.

“There have been a number of improvements since the fall drill,” Kristie Daniel DiGregorio, Academic Senate President, said. “Last time it was 20 minutes. It’s going to be ten minutes this time.”

Despite the shortened drill time, the drill hopes to be equally as effective.

According to DiGregorio, “(Police) Chief (Trevis) really wants to minimize the disruption to teaching and to classes.”

Improvements in technology campus-wide are intended facilitate the overall student safety during a potential lockdown.

Amongst these improvements include fixing classroom telephones, adding interior classroom locks, and installing speakers to the blue emergency poles around campus.

“Phones in all the classes should be working. They’re being tested on a regular basis and they’ve now been installed everywhere on campus,” DiGregorio said.

A member of the Library faculty raised concerns about the presence of functional phones in Library classrooms.

“I want to challenge the segment that all phones have been installed in all classrooms,” Claudia Striepe, Bibliographic Instruction Librarian, said. “In the library there are classrooms and there are no phones in them.”

Two classrooms had yet to have phones installed, 102 and perhaps LDC10 in the basement, according to Striepe at the Academic Senate Meeting on Tuesday, April 18.

DiGregorio assured Striepe that she would pass that information along to the police chief prior to the lockdown drill.

According to a letter in response to a California Public Records Request by The Union, given to a reporter on Wednesday, May 3, Police Chief Michael Trevis said that phones had since been installed in library rooms 102 and LDC10.

The phones were installed before the lockdown shelter-in-place drill took place.

In terms of other improvements, DiGregorio said, “They’re also in the process of adding speakers to the blue poles. Last update from Chief was that two had been installed but more are coming.”

According to a letter in response to a California Public Records Request by The Union, El Camino Police Chief Michael Trevis said that there are 34 blue emergency poles on campus.

Twenty-five speakers are intended on being installed in these poles, according to the letter from Trevis.

Each blue emergency pole costs $7,233, not including shipping, tax, installation, licensing, wiring and service storage, according to the letter from Trevis.

Each speaker installed into the blue emergency poles cost $3,352, not including shipping, tax, licensing, wiring and service storage, according to the letter from Trevis.

Lastly, interior locks have been added so teachers will be able to deter intruders from entering classrooms.

“This month (April) was when the installation of the locks were going to be installed on those classrooms that didn’t have a way to lock from the inside, as well as the lock box,” DiGregorio said.

DiGregorio and Trevis hope these improvements will help facilitate a more effective and safe lockdown drill for students and staff.