The early days of the new school year have brought a series of violent incidents to Schenectady High School — one of which was a fight among students that involved a knife.

“Given the things that have happened in the last couple of weeks, it has us engaged deeper in deeper conversation with our board as it relates to this next layer,” explained Superintendent Dr. Carlos Cotton Jr.

The safety and security will include weapon screening devices. The district hosted a safety fair Thursday where students, staff and community members could get an up-close look at some of the options from several different vendors.

The machines will compliment a myriad of other initiatives the district has implemented over the past few years like safety officers, restorative practice specialists and parent liaisons.

District leaders call it an unfortunate but necessary step.

“This is not what we want, you know, when we think about schools,” Cotton said. “But as we continue to build and as our director of safety and security has shared, that this is that next layer, it is just a layer.”

Most in attendance Thursday were district leaders and faculty with only a handful of community members. The district, though, will look for input from the public before a bidding process.

“Our timeline, it's somewhat aggressive in looking at December,” Cotton said.

The cost of associated with installing these devices range from a couple thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.