The Gainesville City School Board heard about school security updates and potential facilities updates at a combined work session and meeting Monday night.
Chief Operations Officer Adrian Niles attended two conferences on school security and Department of Education school safety grants recently and shared a few things that were underway or in discussion with the board, including card reader access for all of the school system buildings and giving staff better access by using those card readers instead of keys; upgrading the camera system from analog to IP cameras, which is already in progress; the emergency preparedness plans to be revised, as well as drills, safety evaluations, protocol updates and more training for school resource officers. A one-time $81,278 safety grant is set aside for safety improvements from the Georgia Legislature to make these improvements.
Niles said older buildings will need to be retrofitted for some features they don't currently have, like card reader access.
"Bottom line is, we're creating a list of certain things we need to do to improve certain buildings. Some of our buildings are newer and have the security they need and some other buildings we just have to find areas that we may need to go from our analog cameras to our digital cameras... but also things when it comes to card reader access and access to buildings, we've got to make sure we have all of that in order," said Superintendent Jeremy Williams.
Williams also discussed gathering public comment about overcrowding in the district, specifically at the middle and high schools.
"When you look at our overcrowding at the middle school and the fact that the high school has 14 buildings across 10 acres, we want to make sure over the next five years we're planning for the future. Nobody likes to be overcrowded in a school and it always brings up safety issues, so we want to engage the community on what facilities we need long term - whether that's a second middle school, a second high school, a workforce academy, a 6th grade academy, we really look forward to engaging the community in the fall on how to project the future for us."
The board also recognized a graduate of national acclaim as part of its 125th graduating class celebration. Board member Sammy Smith shared some information about Maj. Gen. Roy Bridges, Jr., president of the class of 1961. Smith described him as the most traveled alumni member in Gainesville City Schools history, as well as the highest ranking military alumnus. Bridges is a retired two-star general who flew 252 combat missions with the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War, and when he returned, joined NASA.
