By David Fleet
Editor
Goodrich — On July 25, the school board of trustees voted 5-0 to replace about 120 security cameras in the district with newer technology. Board President Greg Main and Secretary Ashley Herriman were absent with notice.
The upgraded cameras were supplied by Farmington Hills based Capricorn Diversified Systems.
The upgrades are IQ eye legacy security cameras and include: 15 cameras at Reid Elementary; 24 cameras at Oaktree Elementary; 35 cameras at the middle school and 47 at the high school. Upgrades also included Digital Watchdog cameras.
The cost of the upgrade is $80,860 bringing the total cost to $350,951 for the security project. Funding for the project was available in the tech budget, said Wayne Wright, school district superintendent.
“When the bond issue came through all the cameras in the district were evaluated,” said Wright. “About 139 older cameras were examined and kept in place at that time. The rest of the cameras were replaced, plus we added many conditional cameras for security purposes.”
Since the initial evaluation many of the older cameras have failed, and that particular generation of camera is no longer being made, said Wight.
“We are considering replacing the rest of the old cameras with a next generation,” he said. “That will give us a great set of cameras throughout the district. These cameras record and save the data for 30 days.”
In addition to the cameras, updated security devices were installed on classroom doors district wide.
Earlier this year, Wright said new Schlage brand locks were installed on classroom doors in a district building.
“Teachers can now just flip a button and the door is locked,” said Wright. “The Schlage System is better suited for what the district needs.”
Also this summer a second lock will be added to classroom doors, located at the bottom that can be operated by foot. A piece of hardware mounts to the door and another piece mounts to the floor. One end is slid into a slot into the door; the other end fits into a notch in a metal plate mounted on the floor.