Students, staff and visitors entering Schenectady High School or any of the district’s three middle schools will have to walk through a metal detector.

Thursday was a day off from classes, but district leaders wanted to unveil their brand-new security system to the public.

At the high school, there will be metal detectors at one of two entrances into the building that students must walk through. There will be a single point of entry at the middle schools.

Among some of the concerns that have been expressed in the community is the metal detectors might look scary and frighten some students. However, school officials said these machines are really user friendly. The district received a roughly $500,000 grant to cover some of the cost.

“I don’t think you can put a price on safety. I think that the reality is we have spent a lot of money in the last few years on safety, but you can never put a value on one person’s life,” said Jeff Russo, Director of School Climate and Safety. “If we have any incident where somebody is tragically injured in the school forever, we will ask ourselves what more we could have done.”

Other school districts that use metal detectors include Albany and Amsterdam.