The security of students in school has become a national issue in the past month, after a 20-year-old man opened fire in a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school, killing 26 people before turning the gun on himself.

Locally, steps have been taken to enhance security measures in various school districts. In Marlboro, New Jersey, the school district’s board of education approved the implementation of armed security guards in each of the town’s nine school buildings less than a week after the Connecticut shooting.

On Thursday, it was announced by neighboring school district Mt. Olive that the high school there is one board of education vote away from installing an armed, retired police officer in that building.

For Hackettstown, precautionary measures began prior to the Newtown massacre, when the board of education approved the job description for a Director of Security on Nov. 14, 2012.

Superintendent David Mango was not immediately available for comment Thursday.

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