South Harrison’s building administrators will be able to monitor the district’s security cameras remotely on their smart phones, Superintendent Dennis Eastin said in a report to the school board Thursday night.
Eastin said 16 security cameras have been installed in each of the district’s three main buildings, and will be placed in the middle school when it is completed. Video from the cameras are now linked to the Harrison County 911 office in the Law Enforcement Center.
The cameras are located at strategic spots to provide an added element of building security. In addition in the 911 center, building principals will be able to monitor areas of the building 24 hours a day using apps on their iPhones.
Eastin said the school district received a $5,000 grant from the Missouri School Board Association’s Center for School Safety to install the monitoring equipment.
The school board adopted the school safety program to upgrade all the district’s security cameras to conform with video systems that will be installed at the Middle School.
In a report on progress on the new school, Eastin said the Lawhon Construction Company hopes to have the new building enclosed by the end of the week. The walls at the gym will be the last to be installed, he said.
In other business, the board voted to leave the North Central Career Center’s tuition for sending schools at $2,700 annually per student. The decision to keep the tuition at the present level was made on the recommendation of vocational director Bill Pottorff who presented a study of the rates for other area vo-tech schools.
In building news, elementary Principal Natalie Arnold reported that Mrs. Osborne’s second grade class has maintained a high ranking in the Sumdog National Math Contest. The class placed third among other Missouri schools and 16th in the nation. Sumdog is an online math contest through an interactive website.
In the executive session, the school board approved Heather Fitzgerald as the new elementary librarian and accepted the retirement letter of Donna Rieks as special services paraprofessional.
The board offered contracts to all current building administrators. They include Mark Forster, high school principal; Jason Slaughter, special services director; Natalie Arnold, elementary principal; Bill Pottorff, career center director, and Shane Jones, middle school principal.