Heightened security will soon be coming to a Birmingham school near you this spring, after the Birmingham Board of Education voted Tuesday night to accept a series of safety recommendations from Superintendent Daniel Nerad.

A big part of those recommendations: installing new "visitor notification systems" (VNS) — which involves security cameras and intercoms — at every building in the district by May 3. While the total cost of purchasing and installing the VNS system has yet to be determined, the district estimates it will cost around $150,000.

The recommendations were part of a new Safe Schools report first presented to the school board on Feb. 5, crafted by district officials after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Security guards cost the district $40,000 a month The new VNS systems will be replacing the unarmed security guards currently stationed at the doors to every school building. The guards were hired in January as a temporary measure after the district decided to lock the front doors of all school buildings during the day.

Currently there are 15 security guards working throughout the district. With each working 40 hours a week at $17 an hour, the current cost of the contract is $40,800 a month. The estimated cost of all security personnel through May 3 is $122,400, a district report says. Hiring the security guards has not been a popular decision, Nerad admitted on Feb. 5.

"I do realize that this entire conversation ... has created, at times, its own anxiety," Nerad told the school board earlier this month.

On Tuesday, Scott Warrow, a Groves High School teacher and president of the Birmingham Education Association, told school board members that many teachers still don't understand why the guards were hired.

"They don't provide an immediate sense of security (since they're unarmed)," Warrow said. "They provide an appearance of security." With new intercom system, visitors will have to state their reason for being at the school That's where the VNS system comes in, Birmingham's technology director Kevin Galbraith said Tuesday night.