SACO — Mayor Don Pilon has rolled out a campaign, “Secure our Children’s Education” to ensure safety locks on classroom doors.

Pilon, who is an ex-officio member of the school board, learned of a proposal by school officials to replace classroom door locks to make schools safer, should an intruder enter the school.

Classroom doors typically lock with a key from the outside, like a door to a home, said Superintendent of Schools Mike Pulsifer, and are not installed with a turning dead bolt lock on the inside, since such locks would be accessible to students.

Pulsifer said the school board is setting aside $30,000 toward classroom security locks, which would equip classrooms on first floors of school buildings with locks that can be locked by key from the inside.

Though ideally the double-sided keyable locks would be on all classroom doors, Pulsifer said the thought behind placing new locks only on the first floor classrooms is that, should an intruder enter a building and an alarm sounded off, there would be enough of a delay on the second floor for teachers to step outside the classroom to lock the doors.

Though Saco has been very lucky, there have been nationwide reports of school intruders, and the city needs the new locks installed on classroom doors to make sure students are safe, said Pilon.

“I want to be proactive here and not take for granted it won’t happen here,” he said.

Pilon said he is asking for donations and hopes to raise enough money to put new locks on all classroom doors in Saco, and allow the $30,000 the school had earmarked for new locks to be put into the school contingency fund.

Pilon said Tuesday that he had received a check for $7,500 and had received promises of support from local banks.

“I’m cautiously optimistic I can raise money within the community,” said Pilon.

Anyone interested in donating can contact Pilon by calling 229-9302 or emailing [email protected].

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or [email protected].