How could her 5-year-old wander home from school?

Weeks after her son wandered away from a Wantagh elementary school, his mother is still looking for answers.

Katie Matthies, of Wantagh, a mother of three children who attend Forest Lake Elementary, approached the podium during the public comments section of the district’s Board of Education meeting at Wantagh High School on Oct. 19. Speaking through tears, Matthies asked the board about an incident last month, when her 5-year-old son walked out of the school unattended and made his way almost a third of a mile to their house.

Since then, Matthies said, she has emailed the district at least once a week, inquiring about updates to security measures, and has been told by district officials that the incident was under review, a response she was not satisfied with.

“The lack of response at the district level has really caused my family — and I’m sure other families in the district — to lose their trust in the district,” Matthies told the board, “and I just can’t even begin to express to you how awful it is to lose trust in the people that are in charge of taking care of your children, and that has been the hardest part of this for me and my family by far.”

According to Matthies, on the seventh day of kindergarten classes, her son asked to use the bathroom, and was sent unattended. He walked through three hallways, left the building through a front door near the main entrance and made his way home. He showed up on the residence’s security camera, accompanied by a neighbor, who was concerned about his safety. Both of his parents were away at work, so Katie Matthies called the school to alert them that her son had left the building, and the principal, Thomas Burke, ran to the house to retrieve him.

At the board meeting, Matthies asked the trustees to consider increasing the number of aids in the school, installing hard-wired alarms on the doors and revising district policy on the supervision of children. She said she wanted to hear from the board about the changes it planned to make to enhance their safety.

Superintendent John McNamara apologized to Matthies about the incident, and said that the district had conducted a full review immediately after it occurred. Officials reviewed protocols with staff, and tried to determine whether there had been any breakdowns. Wireless alarms were added to all of the doors at all three elementary schools, McNamara told Matthies.

The district also requested a security review by the Nassau County Police Department, Board President Adam Fisher said. The department conducted a walk-through of the school, and, Fisher said, would use the information to draft a report with any recommendations it may have for the district.

As for Matthies’ requests, McNamara said they would be expensive to implement. “Staffing requests — several hundred thousand dollars in staffing requests,” he said. “Hard-wired alarms in all of our doors — several hundred thousand dollars in requests just in a building alone.”

The district pays for facilities upgrades, such as safety and security, with its capital reserve fund, McNamara explained, which is currently being used on projects such as the replacement of the scoreboard at Wantagh High School, roof replacements, exterior door replacements and other improvements around the district.

According to McNamara, capital projects undergo a months-long budget review process, which involves numerous meetings, workshops, forums and focus groups, before a budget is finalized each spring.

“I can’t just say, ‘We’re going to allocate a million dollars in expenses’ without that going through the board and the review process,” he said.

After the meeting, Matthies said she was not satisfied with the board’s answers. “He didn’t say anything about new policies,” she said of McNamara’s responses. “He reviewed current protocols, and that’s concerning for me.”

Wireless alarms, Matthies maintained, while good in the short term, aren’t an adequate long-term solution, and she wasn’t satisfied with the board’s response about the cost of additional aids.

“I’m not saying there needs to be an aid in every room,” she said. “There can be one aid for three classes.”

Despite her frustration with district officials, however, Matthies said that Principal Burke, security, and the Forest Lake building staff have gone above and beyond to make her feel safer about the situation, and have helped her and her son re-establish a relationship with the school.

As for school security, Matthies said, “Now I notice everything. I notice every cracked window. I notice who’s at the door when I go to sign into the building. Now I notice everything, but prior to this I wasn’t as aware, and I wish I was.”