By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

Visitors to Alabaster’s Meadow View Elementary School soon will be required to present a valid identification card or provide other information when entering the school after MVES installs a new security system.

Through the new security system, which was purchased by the school’s PTO, all visitors will be required to present a valid ID card, such as a driver’s license, in the school’s front office before being granted access to the rest of the school.

Those who do not have a valid ID will be able to provide personal information and a photo to be entered into the school’s database, said school resource officer Jamison Lee.

Once scanning an ID card or gathering information from the visitor, office staff members will verify the visitor’s identity and use the software to run a background check before allowing the visitor to continue.

“We hope to have it up and running in a few weeks,” Jamison said during a Feb. 28 interview. “The letters will go out to parents next Friday (March 7).”

Jamison said visitors may experience some delays for when they come to the school for the first time after the system goes live, but said subsequent visits will be much quicker.

“We are just asking parents to be patient the first time they come in,” Lee said. “We are not going to give personal information out to anybody. We are just putting it in the database.

“After they come in for the first time, they will be able to just scan their ID or pull up their information and check in like normal,” Lee added, noting visitors also will check out in the main office at the end of their visit. “If a parent comes in every day, they will come in, someone in the office will type their name in and they’ll be good to go.”

Lee said the software system will add another layer to the school’s existing security infrastructure, which includes a visitor buzz-in system at the school’s front entrance.

This is a great system for us to make sure we know what’s going on and who’s on campus.

“This is a great system for us to make sure we know what’s going on and who’s on campus,” Lee said.