Individuals from outside CHS ring the doorbell to the main entrance of campus every day and, upon entry, have unrestricted access to the building. Now, with school safety in mind, FCPS has ordered the construction of security vestibules in schools around the county. 

“When people come into our school, they kind of don’t know where to go sometimes and they just start walking,” assistant director of student activities Kevin Ford said. “That’s why we have security there, to tell them to go to the main office.”

The new security vestibule will direct visitors from the main entrance at door 1 into the main office. For staff who enter the building through door 1, a secondary door was included, so one can scan their fob to open the automatic main door and enter the vestibule, and scan it again to exit the vestibule into the school. In addition to the construction of the vestibule itself, a third door was added from the main office into the hallway, through which late-arriving students or visitors with passes can access the rest of the campus. 

“When you come in from the outside, you ring the bell and everything’s going to be glass, so you can’t go any further, so your first stop is going to be the main office,” main office administrative assistant Miriam Rutherford said. “The workers have been putting this thing together after school hours so it doesn’t interfere with our students or our daily routine.”

According to field construction supervisor for D&C Remodeling Services Joe Krzywicki, the vestibule project at CHS started in June. But before they could assemble the framework of the vestibule, construction workers had to make some tweaks behind the scenes.

“Above the ceiling, there’s always mechanical, electrical issues,” Krzywicki said. “We’re building a wall above the ceiling and trying to create access, to get that wall framed in, is always challenging. There were a lot of design challenges based on the location of the office—that goes across all the schools.”

In response to the addition of the security vestibule, administrators have updated the tardy policy so that all students who arrive after the 8:10 a.m. bell will enter the building through door one and check in at the main office using Securly Pass (formerly E-HallPass).

 All three interviewees stressed that the construction is not merely meant to direct visitors. The county’s goal is to increase school safety.

“[We’re] just trying to make our schools more secure, which is always a concern,” Ford said. “We have a lot of doors here at Chantilly and we’re trying more and more to make sure that people enter and we know who’s entering. Trying to funnel them through entrance number 1 is kind of step one and now, making sure everybody goes through the main office.”