OREGON, OH (Toledo News Now) -
Since
the Sandy Hook School shooting, local districts have been taking a closer look
at security. In Oregon, the school board approved a plan to upgrade
surveillance at Clay High School.
The
school already has 67 surveillance cameras, but the new upgrades will make them
better, and give parents more peace of mind.
The
school board approved spending $16,000 to buy new software for the cameras.
Currently, the surveillance footage is slow to load, leaving blacked-out squares
of video.
"As
it is popping up, you are saying, if there is an intruder, ‘Where is the
intruder going?'" explained Principal Jeff Thompson.
The
new software will upgrade the system from analog to digital. Images will load
much faster, and will be sharper.
"It
gives our personnel a better opportunity to see more clearly what's going on in
the building so that we can try to prevent an incident from happening,"
Superintendent Dr. Mike Zalar said. "If an accident does occur, it gives us a
better opportunity to find out exactly what did happen."
Vince
Lewinski has two children at Clay, and said he feels better now about their
safety.
"It
would eliminate a lot of problems in the school, I think, as far as any kind of
troublemakers," he said.
Eventually,
the surveillance cameras could be replaced with newer models, but that may
depend on voter approval of the district's permanent improvement levy in May.
The
software upgrade should be installed in about two weeks.
Oregon's
elementary and middle schools also have cameras, but no upgrades are planned at
this time.
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