West Liberty Elementary School will have a security upgrade when students return to class next fall.
This was made possible by the governor’s campus security funding initiative, West Liberty Community School District Superintendent Shaun Kruger said during the board of education meeting Monday, April 17.
“One of the things we’ve been working on is getting cameras in the elementary building,” Kruger said. “There currently are none.”
School districts in Iowa could sign up to have all their buildings security audited. Then the company held a meeting with administrators, maintenance and technology directors to go over areas of recommendations and strengths.
“Part of that assessment then is $50,000 per building to be used to enhance an upgrade then to campus security,” Kruger said.
The money for the old early learning center building will be used for a camera system for the elementary school, he added.
“Essentially this entire project for the elementary school is covered through that grant as long as they approve it,” Kruger added.
Technology director Brian Rance told board members cameras would be included in the exterior and interior of the elementary school. The building will also have doors that will need key fobs to enter.
“It’s a just a couple of different modifications and ensures that we will have exterior cameras covering parking lots, playgrounds and that sort of stuff,” Rance said.
Exterior cameras in the front of the building, the parking lot and by the playground will have 180-degree angle views, he added.
The other exterior cameras will have a 360-degree view, which will be installed front of the school so they can see what is happening at the intersection, Vance said. Some of the interior cameras will have a 90-degree view so staff can see what is going on down the hallway.
“So this is comparable to what we have in the high school now,” Board of Education member Ed Moreno said.
Vance said this was correct. The elementary school cameras will use the same software the middle and high school uses for their camera systems. Administrators can look at the cameras even if they’re not in the building to review if needed.
“And the key fabs, that doesn’t exist now in some of these older locations?” Moreno asked Vance.
“Correct,” Vance replied. “There’s a few that do exist right now but they’ll be replaced and retrofitted into this new system.”
“We’re very fortunate to have this grant,” Moreno added.
Moreno asked if everyone was set with the software for the video from the cameras.
Vance said everything is stored for a 30 day time period on the cloud network. The license for that would be for 10 years.
The request to upgrade the key fabs and install security cameras at the elementary school was approved unanimously by the board.
Other items covered by the board of education included:
• approving the Tanager Counseling contract for next school year;
• approving a shared work-place learning coordinator position;
• and held the first reading of board policies 504.4 507.9