LEWISTON – Since Aug. 28, anyone walking into Lewiston High after 7:45 a.m. has only one way in: the front.

New security procedures mean all doors but the front are locked once the school day begins.

Even after walking through the front doors, people are greeted by a second set of locked, glass doors. Visitors can see the lobby but can’t get in. They have to push buzzers and tell someone who they are and why they’re there. Once buzzed inside, visitors must sign in and wear a visitor sticker.

That kind of improved security is happening at all Lewiston schools, Superintendent Leon Levesque said.

Effective this fall, all schools have a single-point entry enabling staff to keep students safer and better control who’s in school buildings. A single-point school entry is recommended by Maine State Police and Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron. The ease of walking into schools was the focus of Sun Journal stories in 2006 and 2007.

Upgrading entrances to eight school buildings has been a two-year process, Levesque said. Some were improved last year, the rest this summer. The cost was $80,000 to the city, plus some federal grant money. “It was money well spent to bring more security to our schools,” he said.

With the one new Farwell school, building a single-point entrance was no problem. Older schools were more of a challenge. “They were never designed for it,” Levesque said. “It meant sitting down and looking at how can we make this thing work.”

Some schools, including the high school, now have vestibules so people can get buzzed in but not wait out in the weather. In other schools there wasn’t space.

Initially, the change caused discomfort to some accustomed to just walking in, Levesque said. “But when people stop and think about it, they like the idea. Parents are concerned about security.”

As school begins, faculty members at all schools are outdoors and in lobbies watching students walk in. Once the day starts, the doors are locked.

The new system meant high school faculty had to give up their parking spaces near the front to students. Now teachers have to park behind the building near the gym. That means some walk further.

That was done, Amnott said, out of concern that some students arriving after 7:45 may not walk around the building and would instead call their friends asking them to open the back door.

Losing parking close to the entrance is inconvenient, acknowledged Substance Abuse Counselor Vicky Wiegman. “I’ve had the same parking space since 1987,” she said. “I told (principal) Gus LeBlanc I would love to have a sweet parking space, but I’ll adapt” to make the school safer. Walking farther “will be part of my wellness plan,” Wiegman said.

At the beginning of the year, principals met with high school students explaining the change and pointing out student obligations to help keep everyone safe, said Assistant Principal Paul Amnott. “Everyone is cooperating.”

At the Martel Elementary School on Lisbon Street, that school’s single-point entrance has buzzers and cameras, but there wasn’t space to build a vestibule, said Principal Stephen Whitfield. People waiting to get buzzed in have to wait outside, he said.

“But parents have been positive,” Whitfield said. “Five years ago this would have been an issue.” But with news coverage of school tragedies in other states, “people know that’s what you have to do now. It’s accepted,” Whitfield said.

Martel PTO President Marnie Morneault agreed. With what’s happened nationally, “it’s become a necessity.”