Last of South Pas Schools to be Fenced Won't be Missing Gates For Long

It’s been nearly a week since students returned to South Pasadena Middle School and Monterrey Hills Elementary to find that both campuses were peripherally fenced during the summer break.

But complete “border security” for the schools—the last in the district to get fencing—is still a week or two away as contractors work to install gates along the campus perimeters.

The reason for the time lag in erecting the fences and connecting them with gates is that getting approval for the entryways took “quite some time,” according to South Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Joel Shapiro.

“The gates require a special design,” Shapiro said, explaining that care has been taken to make them as inconspicuous and visually pleasing as possible. 

Costing about $180,000 for each school, the fencing was scheduled to be completed within two to three weeks of the beginning of the new school year, Shapiro said.

While resources for the middle school fence came from the city’s 2002 $29-million Measure M bond money, with matching funds from the state, those for Monterrey elementary came out of the school district’s general funds.

Related: SPUSD Superintendent Addresses School Safety.