Visitors to classroom buildings in the Hillsboro R-3 School District will soon have to check in with an electronic monitoring system.
The Board of Education recently agreed to pay Raptor Technologies, based in Houston, Texas, $11,676 for hardware, software and equipment needed add a new visitor management system in each of the district’s five schools.
The company submitted the only bid for the system.
“It’s a unique service, so (Raptor) was the only bidder,” Superintendent Jon Isaacson said.
Isaacson said the district will have to budget for a $3,750 annual fee for software licensing and technical support.
He said the system will help beef up security in schools.
“It’s an instant screening process where a visitor is asked to present his or her driver’s license (or other state-issued ID card) at the door. The system then checks the ID against the sex offenders list from all 50 states,” he said. “If they pass the check, a visitor pass will be printed.
“If not, the administration and a school resource officer will be alerted.”
The school board voted 6-0 Nov. 16 to buy the equipment for the new system. Board member Rob Kruse was absent from the meeting.
That’s just one of the safety improvements the district has in the works.
The board voted on Oct. 26 to pay $95,873 Haddock Education Technologies in Bel Aire, Kan., to install a new intercom system at Hillsboro Elementary School. The company was the lowest of three bidders for the work.
The elementary school has an aging intercom system that uses classroom phones and intercom speakers. The new system will provide full coverage of indoor and outdoor areas, Isaacson said.
“The new system will have the ability to communicate with everyone at the same time,” he said.
The board also voted on Oct. 26 to award a $129,049 contract to American Digital Security in Liberty to install a new video surveillance system at Hillsboro High School.
That company submitted the highest of the four bids for the project.
Aaron Moore, the district’s director of technology, told the board that American Digital Security’s equipment was better.
“We felt they provided more options that would save our administration more time,” he said. “We’re trying to get better quality pictures.”
Moore said the district’s specifications also changed and administrators were willing to pay for fewer, but better cameras.
“The cameras we’re getting produce 4 megapixel images rather than 2 megapixels,” he said. “But we will still have the entire campus well covered. The bid also includes new, better cables and installation.”
Isaacson said the school’s current system is outdated and unreliable and doesn’t cover all areas on campus.
“The video system is original to the high school building,” he said. “In today’s world, 20-year-old technology is old technology. The pictures it generates are very difficult to see.”
Isaacson said the elementary and high school projects were started over the holiday break, with the ID system likely to be online in late January or early February.
The district will use a $200,000 School Safety Grant, which is administered though the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, to pay for most of those improvements and the rest will come from money the district has budgeted for safety initiatives, Isaacson said.
Replacement bus approved
Also at the October meeting, the Hillsboro R-3 Board of Education voted unanimously to buy a “slightly used” minibus for its school bus fleet.
The board agreed to pay $93,000 to Central States Bus Sales in Fenton for a 2021 Chevrolet Micro Bird bus that seats 29 people.
According to district documents, the district has been transitioning its small bus fleet to all Micro Bird vehicles, and Central States is the only dealer for those buses in the state. That company also can provide parts and service if needed.
A new bus would cost $123,000.
The purchase of the used bus, which has 23,000 miles on it, was included in the budget for this school year.
The used bus will replace a bus that has more than 230,000 miles.
Isaacson said a used bus that matches the model sought and is within acceptable mileage and age parameters is difficult to find.
“We try to be deliberate with our bus purchases to ensure our entire fleet is safe,” he said. “Our buses are driven a lot of miles in our school district because of our geographic size, so it’s imperative to keep on top of the fleet.”
Isaacson said the old bus would be used as a spare.