Edwardsville district getting high-tech security system
Board also approves bid for digital projection equipment at EHS
While the system is expected to be installed in the new and renovated schools by the start of the school year, it will take approximately 18 months to install the system district-wide.
Director of Information Systems and Services William Miener gave a short presentation on the plan at Monday's school board meeting.The system includes video monitors at all building entrances, biometric ID badges for staff, and the ability to scan visitors' ID and do a partial background check before allowing them into the buildings.
Staff members will have an ID with an embedded biometric scan. To enter a secure building, they would have to scan their card, then place a finger or thumb on a scanner to confirm their identity.
Miener noted that the fingerprint would be on the card only, rather than being stored on a computer.
Visitors would have their state ID, such as a driver's license, scanned. The scan would reveal if a person was a registered sex offender.
The scan would also generate a photo ID visitor's badge.
Miener said Tuesday that the hardware and licensing agreements for the security system itself will be about $685,000, with some additional costs to plug it into the district's computer network.
The board also approved a $302,128 bid from Schiller's Imaging Group for the installation of digital projection equipment in 100 classrooms at Edwardsville High School.
The project has a Sept. 28 completion date, but Miener said it would probably be done before that.
The board also approved new health curriculum for the district.
The cost will be $209,000, with the district picking up $87,000 and the state paying $122,000.
The board also heard two presentations.
EHS English and history teacher Jamie Hemken and Woodland Elementary third-grade teacher Wendy Adams spent part of their summer touring Thailand as part of the Rotary International Group Study Exchange.
The program gives young professionals a chance to visit different countries.
The two had been recommended for the trip by Superintendent Ed Hightower, a Rotary member.
"We were dealing with an entirely different culture, but we met some extraordinary people," Hemken said.
The trip included small journeys into Myanmar and Laos, and was "an adjustment," according to the two.
One of those adjustments was the food.
While Adams talked about how thrilling it was to find a McDonalds, Hemken tried crickets and bamboo worms.
"It's really not bad at all," she said.
The board also heard a presentation about the district's cooperative educational programs with the Watershed Nature Center.
Sandy Fultz, the district's full-time teacher at the site, gave the presentation, saying that in the past year 6,736 students visited the center or participated in outreach programs at their schools.
