Information discussed at the recent Jefferson City school board's safety and security committee meeting revealed technology is an important part of the district's precautionary and emergency response measures, but it's human connections that tie it all together.
One item of discussion at the meeting Tuesday was the district's security camera system and Jefferson City Police Department's ability to access the camera feeds in real-time.
The district's safety and security coordinator Kurt Mueller said he got the idea for the capability from the Raytown school district, and it was enabled here last year.
"We can't use the word monitor; that's not the purpose. The idea (is) that if we have a real-deal emergency on one of our campuses, that would be able to give eyes and ears to the officer, the first responders that are coming up to campus where the problem is and how to respond," Mueller said of the access granted to JCPD that allows officers to log in to the district's building camera systems from the laptops of school resource officers or from police headquarters.
Normally, each building's security system is only reactive, not proactive.
"We don't monitor. That's a bad word. We don't say that," Mueller said of how district staff use the cameras.
South Elementary School Principal Angela Otiker said the system gives an opportunity to go back and review what happened, if something happened.
The district's director of facilities, Bob Weber, said video is stored for 30 days.
"From an annual basis, from our site level management, we're constantly mapping where we have incidents that we don't have camera coverage (of), and we bring those to Kurt. Whether we decide that's a longer term issue or that is just a spot issue that we can fix with the movement of a camera or something like that, that's a site level job," Jacob Adams said. Adams is assistant principal at Jefferson City High School.
However, in the event of an emergency, "Communications can log in down there and give us live updates to the command post. 'Suspects are in this building,' or 'this building's on fire in this particular region,'" JCPD Sgt. Jason Payne said of how the department can use the cameras.
Payne added the capability of remote access "has been used a couple times for alarms, alarms on a night shift. We can go ahead, pull that building up so officers don't have to worry about walking into (an unknown hazard), so it's been utilized for that."
Mueller said the district's buildings in Cole and Callaway counties have the same capability.
"And that's probably something, now that you bring that up, that we should probably share with Callaway County. Cole County would know because they're dispatched out of our center, but Callaway County we should probably get with," Payne said.
Mueller said former district counsel Penney Rector helped him draw up and specify the language of the partnership. Rector left the district in the last year to be the chief human resources officer for Springfield Public Schools.
Payne said human staff are a vital part of the district's emergency response plans, too.
He reiterated the importance of establishing safety committees in each building, something that's on the committee's list of initiatives for the coming year.
"That is huge. God forbid there's a crisis, at least I know when I come to it that I can go to Jacob, he's the security guy for the school. He's going to know what everybody should be doing, where we should be, what's the point of contact. I think those teams are crucial in an incident like that, so I don't have me going to try to find 20 people to know where everybody's going."
Superintendent Larry Linthacum also added while cameras are a reactive system, the district has gotten better about being proactive in other ways.
"Last year, we started (having) all of our teachers greeting kids every day, and just visibility of having staff members, there's something about the presence of a staff member," Linthacum said. He went on to say, "I think that's a real step in the right direction on our staff being visible and greeting kids and developing relationships with those kids."