By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Students and visitors to Alabaster’s Kingwood Christian School arrived on campus to several changes when they started the academic year on Aug. 14, as KCS has spent the past several months beefing up its security features.

Kingwood began the upgrades in December 2017, and worked throughout the summer to significantly increase the school’s safety measures, said KCS Headmaster Ruth Gray.

“We really worked hard to get the school as safe and secure as possible,” Gray said. “If we have a tragedy, this would buy us precious time until first responders are able to get on the scene and take control of the situation.”

Last year, the school hired David Kline as the school’s dean of students and school resource officer. Kline has a lengthy history working in law enforcement. He began working as a police officer in 2002, and has spent time in patrol, SWAT and investigative divisions at multiple law enforcement agencies over the years.

He has instructed all KCS employees on the “Run, hide, fight” program, which would go into effect in the event of an active shooter situation, and has degrees from Wallace Community College in Selma and the University of Montevallo.

In addition to having a full-time SRO, the school now has magnetic door locks on all exterior doors, which require a KCS employee to buzz visitors in, and now has 32 cameras monitoring common areas and every middle and high school classroom. The school also added a new wall and magnetically locking doors in its main lobby, requiring an office staff member to buzz visitors into the classroom area.

All of the school’s offices have emergency panic buttons, which would alert the Alabaster Police Department and allow officers to be at the school within three minutes, Gray said. All KCS employees also have current CPR certifications.

Gray said despite the slew of new security features, the first day of school went off without a hitch.

“It was smooth as glass,” Gray said. “And that’s because of the weeks and months of prep by the whole team to make sure the first day would be completely without incident.”

Gray said the school is continuing to focus on serving students who thrive in a smaller classroom setting and who are interested in studying “from a Biblical world view.” The 37-member senior class also will continue a tradition in early September when the students take their annual class retreat.

“We are a close-knit family, and everyone knows everyone,” Gray said.

The theme for this school year is “feed the need,” which will focus on identifying and meeting the community’s needs, Gray said.

“Through that theme, we want to minister to students and families, but also the entire community,” she said. “It’s going to challenge (our students) and give them discernment of others. We want them to shift the focus off themselves and really think about others.”