It's still key

It's not entirely surprising that Harford County Public Schools over the years have allowed people who aren't members of the school system staff to have keys to certain buildings.

After all, school buildings are widely used for Harford County Parks and Recreation programs, some are rented to churches, and there are any number of volunteers helping with everything from booster clubs and marching bands to mentoring and coaching sports teams.

What is odd is that it appears keys were given out in an irresponsible way that resulted in the theft of more than $10,000 over a 10-month span at Patterson Mill High School.

The money had been stolen from cash boxes at sporting events at the school and it turned out, according to the Harford County State's Attorney's Office, that so many people had access to the money boxes that it didn't make sense to try to pursue criminal charges.

Not surprisingly, the old system granted authority to decide who got keys and who didn't not to a school system policy or guideline, but to the discretion of an administrator at each school.

As of the start of this school year, and not coincidentally on the heels of the Patterson Mill thievery, a school system policy has been enacted. Only school system employees will be allowed to have keys.

While it's a good idea to have keys to schools primarily limited to school system staff, this should not become a reason to further close the doors of the school system to community organizations.

The schools, after all, and contrary to what too many people working in them believe, don't belong to the school system. They belong to the communities which not only pay for buildings, but also pay the salaries of the people who work in them.

Clearly, we in the community have an interest in ensuring our schools are kept secure, and access to them by various community organizations is granted fairly and without interfering with the primary function of educating our children.

That, however, is going to mean something of a change in how the school system operates with regard to community access. The extreme of having so many people with keys to a school that it's impossible to determine who might have stolen money out of a cash box is definitely too far in one direction. But considering that schools are, and long have been, community gathering places for more than just education, it's important to still have reasonable access provisions.