The Board of Education in New Canaan, Conn., unanimously passed a bundle of safety and security improvement projects – including hiring security guards for each school, cell service boosters, better locks and two-way radios – for town schools, all of which will cost approximately $284,994, according to the New Canaan Advertiser.

Superintendent Dr. Mary Kolek says that immediate improvements to “shore up” the district’s safety and security procedures and processes in order to address needs in the short-term, the article says.

Phase I of the project consists of 13 separate safety and security items, 11 of which are smaller items equaling $71,864, including 20 two-way radio batteries for $700, a new school security check-in system for $10,765 – which would run immediate background checks on potential visitors to school buildings – and $17,812 for a series of front desk and secretary surveillance computer monitors, the NC Advertiser reports. There is also $500 set aside for 10 AT&T cell boosters, which would provide cell service encompassing only the perimeter of the school building.

The initial phase also includes $119,130 for the purchase and installation of all new locks, which would be able to be locked from the interior, throughout the school district.

The board also passed a $94,000 expense to add five full-time trained security officers – or “monitors” – to the district’s elementary schools and Saxe Middle School. New Canaan High School already employs security monitors as well as a school resource police officer, the article says.