.jpg)
Buena Vista City Public Schools has had a surveillance system in place for eight years, but with the recent installation of a Verkada security system at Parry McCluer High School, Superintendent Tony Francis believes they have upgraded to the “next level of security.”
The previous system at the high school began to fail once the digital video recorder (DVR) stopped properly recording surveillance footage, Francis told The News-Gazette. “I didn’t want to spend money on the old system and try to just patch it together when we know that the DVR system is just not a great system,” he said.
After a friend recommended Verkada, and upon realizing its state-of-the-art features, Francis decided to invest in the system using grant funding reserved for safety and security. Installing Verkada at the high school cost about $139,000 with a 10-year warranty on all the equipment, Francis noted.
At the February School Board meeting, Francis invited a Verkada representative, Alex Bodrug, to share the advantages to the new surveillance system.
Verkada, based out of California, is an enterprise-level security system with access control and facial recognition, environmental sensors, alarms, and an intercom system, Bodrug told the Board.
The system at PMHS consists of 61 cameras, 13 door access controls, and nine environmental sensors. BVCPS implemented Verkada at PMHS in January.
Bodrug stressed four important features that he believes are attributable to Verkada’s success. He referred to these features as the “Find, Save, Share” approach – response time, proactivity, security, and connectivity or support.
Monitoring 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the system’s Cloud memory allows users to review footage and archive clips. While the camera enables users to filter for specific timestamps, the system can also be programmed to filter license plate numbers, people, and specific characteristics, Bodrug said. The system can register faces and record how many times that particular person has come onto the school’s premises.
“Obviously, you all work pretty closely with the police department,” Bodrug said to the Board. “Get mugshots or profile pictures of parents without custody, sex offenders in the area, drug dealers. Upload them into the system … create a profile, give them a name, and mark them as a person of interest. Once you mark them as a person of interest, it’s going to tell you any time this person steps near any of the cameras.”
This enables administrators to be proactive as they’re able to detect any unwanted visitors before they’ve had the chance to cause a disturbance.
By sending a live link to local law enforcement, BVCPS can share access to all the cameras and features of the system. They will be alerted and have access to live footage within the school, giving them a strategic approach to an emergency situation.
“If we did have a crisis, we could push out to the Buena Vista City Police Department and they could have access to all of our cameras,” Francis noted.
In the event of a lockdown, administrators would simply need to hit a button informing the system to secure all building access points within seconds. The system will send alerts if the doors have been forced open and it can be programmed to lock and unlock the doors at specific times throughout the day. Administrators can create user profiles that will grant an individual access through a locked door, Bodrug mentioned. For example, if the doors are in lockdown mode, Francis could still have access to the buildings to alleviate the problem.
The Verkada surveillance system is all-encompassing and will detect and alert disturbances in regard to temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, air quality, and a vape index, Bodrug noted.
“It has truly been very effective for us. We’re still learning it, of course. It’s new, so it’s going to take us some time to get really, really comfortable with it, because there is just so much that they offer,” said Todd Jones, the principal of Parry McCluer High School. “But, already we’re seeing an increase [in response time] like if we have a vape going off or something like that. [The cameras and sensors] are sensitive and it’s very quick for us to respond to it.”
While the district continues evaluating the Verkada system at the high school, Francis hopes to obtain state funding to aid in the installment of the system at Kling Elementary School and Enderly Heights Elementary School next year.
In Lexington and Rockbridge
Surveillance systems have been an important feature of all local school districts for a number of years as schools across the nation have endured traumatic security breaches.
Lexington City Schools has utilized a camera surveillance system in Lylburn Downing Middle School since 2008 and a new system was installed at Waddell Elementary School with the school’s renovation in 2016, Director of Operations and Student Services Jason White informed The News-Gazette.
“The surveillance system can be used for a multitude of reasons,” White said. “Administrators rely on the system for several reasons. Some examples include general monitoring of campus, disciplinary matters, safety concerns, [and] maintenance issues.”
He continued, “Surveillance systems are also used by law enforcement for matters involving incidents on school property or in the areas around the school campuses.”
Likewise, Rockbridge County Public Schools Superintendent Phillip Thompson believes that security cameras are a means to deter inappropriate student behaviors.
“The cameras do help greatly when administrators must conduct an investigation to better understand what actually took place when inappropriate behaviors occur,” he told The News-Gazette.
RCPS has had video surveillance for approximately 20 years at Rockbridge County High School and Maury River Middle School. They began upgrading their system and expanding it throughout the rest of the district’s schools in 2013 with the renovation of MRMS, Thompson said.
Both districts have cameras located in common areas within the schools such as hallways, cafeterias, gymnasiums, and entrance ways.
While having video surveillance can promote a higher level of security, there can be downsides to its installment.
As the cameras aren’t located in all areas of the county school buildings, some students tend to take advantage of areas lacking surveillance, said Thompson.
“… Some believe that if poor behavior were not captured on a video tape than it didn’t happen at all. While very helpful in most investigations, cameras are only a portion of the investigations our administrators must undertake,” Thompson said.
White, meanwhile, noted that sometimes there are technological errors. “Like all technology, sometimes the systems have to be repaired and/or updated,” he said. Often, issues with the system are detected too late, obstructing valuable footage needed to understand an incident.
