South Putnam board continues security camera discussions

The South Putnam School Board continued discussions on a new security camera system during its last meeting of the year held on Monday evening.

Steve Ricketts of Five Star Technologies was once again on hand to present the board with an updated quote, which the included encoders for the corporation to continue using its existing analogue cameras along with the 12 new high definition cameras, which would cover the new fitness area along with the bus area at South Putnam High School.

"Down the road, that would be a surplus piece of equipment that we would not use," Ricketts explained. "It's kind of a convince thing right now to have older cameras all be on the same system as our newer cameras. Essentially, what we could do is leave those older cameras in place and just add on."

Ricketts noted that once the corporation updates to all high definition cameras the encoders would be useless, which proved to be a point of contention for the board as the encoder itself could pay for just over two new cameras.

"By having the encoder, all the older cameras will have the benefits of the new ones besides the picture quality," Ricketts added.

With some of the board members leaning toward just replacing the whole system, Ricketts advised that by doing so the corporation would not only have to purchase new cameras to replace the analogue ones, but it will also have to purchase another server at a cost of $4,800.

"You're looking at least at a minimum of two servers," board member Anthony Heavin advised. "If we switch everything to digital -- it sounds great at $542 a camera, but you're also talking a new server at $5,000."

The new camera system will focus mainly on the high school and middle school at this time. Although, Ricketts noted that Central could join the new network quite easily, Fillmore Elementary School will have some difficulty due to its wireless connection.

"It really hampers us," Ricketts explained. "Now, we could put something locally out there such as a local recording device somehow. If we could ever get fiber out there, we'd be set. We have Cinergy that's pretty close. We had a meeting with them last year and they said it was going to cost us like $30,000 to get them that last four miles."

Although, the new cameras will only be installed at the high school and middle school both Central Elementary and Fillmore Elementary principals noted that they believe the schools are in good shape as of now in regard to the security camera coverage.

"I really think that the middle school and high schools are your hot spots," Ricketts said. "There are things that happen at the elementary schools, but there is a lot more movement at the middle/high school."

With each board member having a different opinion in regard of what direction to go, the board once again chose to table the issue to not only weigh the cost option to purchase 27 new cameras or to keep the analogue cameras and purchase 12 new ones for the fitness center. If the board were to choose to replace the entire system, it would cost the corporation nearly $45,000. However, Ricketts will also be looking into federal grant funding to help offset the cost.

"The way we have it right now, nothing is inoperable, everything is working," board member Angie Nichols said. "I know that we can't have too many cameras. I know that we have a long way to go. Twenty-seven cameras is not that many, but there is no reason to be in a big hurry. We can look at all of this objectively and think about what we are going to do in the long run and try and do it as smart and efficiently as possible."

Ricketts is expected to come back with a formal quote to replace the whole system as well during the January meeting when the board will once again resume discussions.

Keeping in line with other area schools, the school board also chose to approve its 2015-16 calendar, which like other area schools, is very is similar to this years.

"The calendar is identical to this year with the same weeks for vacation, for fall break and so forth," Superintendent Bruce Bernhardt noted. "It's corresponding dates to the 2014-15 school calendar. The superintendents in the county have met several times and compared calendars and they're relatively close. They're about as close as we can get them."

With little discussion the board unanimously approved to pass the calendar, which has students starting on Friday, Aug. 7 along with having fall break Oct. 12-16, spring break on March 21-25 and school ending on May 26 with graduation being held on May 28.

In other business:

* The board honored Central Elementary fifth-grader Catherine Hodge, Fillmore Elementary third-grader Jaicee Jackson, seventh-grader Nick Warren and 10th-grader Caitlin Schilling as its December students of the month.

* The board also approved the resignations of instructional assistant Alex Boyce and bus driver Tammy Zimmerman along with the hiring of John Briones as the middle school girls' basketball coach.