The Española School District Board members were told it might cost $150,000 to overhaul the aging, outdated camera system at Española Valley High School.
Board members heard from the high school’s facilities staff at their Oct. 21 meeting where the issues of bandwidth and funding were considered, as District officials continue to deal with technology and security concerns in the aftermath of several recent lockdown situations at District schools.
Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez said the funds to complete the work would not come from the District’s operational fund, instead the District could dip into money granted by SB-9, the Public School Capital Improvements Act, which allows voters to approve a property levy. These funds are generally utilized for maintenance of public school buildings, including the purchasing or repairing of maintenance equipment.
Gutierrez said a new camera system could also be paid for with general obligation bonds. These funds are issued by state and local governments to raise funding needed for public works, including school repairs.
“As far as our technology, it seems we already have our foundation in place,” said Technology Coordinator Andrew Trujillo. “The thing that concerns me most is bandwidth, how much do we run through these things.”
Equipment needs
Trujillo said in addition to video surveillance, school networks are now expected to support a number of services including lighting and heating. He said staff are pricing a new camera system to replace the 27 of the 98 existing cameras at the high school, as well as estimating how much work must be done to update current technology at the District’s other schools.
“I have been looking at what it is we really need in terms of equipment,” Trujillo said. “I am looking at all the components to see how we are going to tie it all together. It was interesting to see how behind the times we are.”
Trujillo said while researching options, it was shocking to see that a school the size of Española Valley High School only had 98 cameras while most schools of its size at other districts utilize an average of 120 cameras. He said it would cost roughly $150,000 to replace the system at the high school.
“There’s so many different flavors of cameras out there,” he said. “I looked at a Panasonic model, it seemed to be the most stable.”
Gutierrez said she has been doing research herself to access the needs of the schools and by doing so discovered previous designs did not make much sense.
“I’ve been a little bit surprised too, even in digging deeper how far behind we are,” Gutierrez said. “Even at our elementary schools, to use Fairview as an example, our camera system is in an electrical closet that the custodian looks at. How is the principal supposed to monitor what’s going on in the school.”
Standardization
Gutierrez said the District needs to create a standard around where cameras are to be located at the schools.
“In an elementary school it has to be in an office so that the principal and the secretary can monitor it,” she said. “It has to be in the office area. It just makes no sense why it was decided that could be a good location.”
Trujillo said information technology staff were looking at how to integrate existing systems at Alcalde Elementary while District officials continue refining the emergency management plan.
“I still have some work to do in the elementaries and the other schools,” he said.
Board Vice President Lucas Fresquez asked how the District staff could best utilize existing resources.
“We could certainly re-purpose some cameras,” Trujillo said. “Once we get into the details of it and we can really see what’s out there, we’re going to have that answer, but I will definitely entertain that.”
He said the main issue is new equipment would have to be compatible with the existing system.
State funding
Trujillo also said he and Española School District Facilities Manager Adan Cordova have been working with the Public Schools Authority to arrive at solutions for the District’s technology problems.
“We’ve done a lot of surveys with them,” Trujillo said. “This is something that we can put as part of our capital needs.”
The information technology staff members said there has been a big push to upgrade networks at the school, but additional personnel is not always a requirement.
“The nice thing about the way these systems are designed is that you don’t need a traditional dedicated person monitoring the cameras from one room,” Trujillo said. “As long as they have the connection, they have mobility.”
Cordova said there is a dedicated position to monitoring the cameras now at the high school.
“In the event we had a situation, he is the only one at the time who needs to go check and can take his tablet or his notebook, or whatever type of device that he has,” he said. “He can leave his post and still have visual of all the cameras, the principal and all the kids.”
Trujillo said with upcoming P.A.R.C.C. assessments, exams which students have to take online, running and operating all the cameras could be a strain on the network in the near future.
“We gotta make sure that we can really support that bandwidth,” Trujillo said.
He said by the Board’s next session he would have more details and concrete plans for the Board to review.
Gutierrez said a meeting with District officials and emergency management respondents has been scheduled for Nov. 10. The location is to be determined.