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MILL HALL -- The Keystone Central School District Board of Directors is continuing its discussion surrounding safety in its facilities -- with the potential change in security devices already proposed.
District officials previously approved the installation of smart sensors at Central Mountain High School for the purposes of tackling safety and security concerns back in May.
Incidents of violence and other poor conduct lead to a discussion around amping up security when they were brought to light by several students at a work session held in February, which prompted school board president David Dietrich to hold a special meeting for the purposes of brainstorming ideas to prevent acts of violence at the school moving forward.
Consequently, the school board voted to employ HALO Smart Sensors.
HALO Smart Sensor devices add an extra layer of security for students by monitoring what happens in school restrooms and other areas that aren't easily visible to security personnel, without invading students' privacy since they do not utilize cameras, record audio, or collect any personally identifiable information. When the sensors are triggered, they alert designated staff members, allowing them to monitor abnormal behavior that could lead to a dangerous situation before it arises. These specific devices were put into operation as part of a pilot program, but the decision to continue using them has since changed.
However, at Thursday evening's school board work session, the board proposed a different product from another company be installed for the job.
KCSD school board members investigated different products for increasing school safety and security, which led to the approval and implementation of two HALO Smart Sensor 3C devices to assist in the prevention of future safety and security issues.
Now, district staff are proposing that security software and devices be provided by a different company, Dagostino Electronic Services, Inc. This company can migrate the school's existing 463 network cameras to Genetec Video Management, a unified platform; existing security software as well as software from new security devices will be available for surveillance all on a single platform.
"I'd like to reiterate, this is not in addition to what was already approved. This would replace what was approved in May," Superintendent Dr. Jacquelyn Martin said.
Dagostino Electronic Services offers a security platform called Genetec, which would allow CMHS security personnel to more effectively monitor students and provide greater situational awareness overall, as it has the capability to proactively prepare and respond to emerging threats.
This system will allow for all security operations in the building to be combined: monitoring, reporting and configuration tasks can all be consolidated onto a single platform which would provide the most efficient approach to managing the security system at the school.
Assistant Superintendent Mark Condo explained the reason for the change and provided further information during the work session.
"The change, really, is having essentially a unified platform of one system where all components could work together," Condo said. "The current software we have that runs our camera system would not communicate with the platform that we were looking to use."
According to Condo, Genetec Video Management software provides enhanced capabilities such as facial recognition, tracking throughout all of the district's buildings and even license plate identification.
With use of these devices and software, Condo explained that when a dangerous situation arises, the amount of time it takes to conduct an investigation would be reduced dramatically.
"You can highlight a face and it'll pick up where that person goes through the entire system. In terms of time that would be needed to do those investigations, we can track kids and find out where they're going and what they're doing which will help us out," he said.
Condo noted that in comparison, the Genetec security system is more cost effective than the HALO Smart Sensors and it provides additional enhancements within the schools camera system, such as facial recognition.
"We would like to migrate all of our cameras over to the same software package that Genentech offers. So again, all of our buildings will have the same platform, same camera system, and the same software package managing all of those things," he said.
In closing, Condo stated, "I think after these things are installed and we make the switch, our camera system, from a safety security perspective, is going to be top notch."