City Schools approves security measures
S
ecurity at Las Vegas City Schools sites was a key focus of Thursday night’s board meeting.
The board approved a number of items aimed at improving security at all district’s schools, starting with doors. The board approved a purchase order that would replace or repair doors at all City schools at a cost of nearly $90,000.
“It’s not every door that ought to be replaced,” Director of Operations Tom Meserve said. “Some are just door frames that will bring all doors up to good working order.”
Superintendent Kelt Cooper said the doors should be addressed before the district can move on to electronic security measures. The eventual goal for Robertson High School is to install alarms on doors that are meant to be used only as exits, and to have cameras focused on those doors as well.
Schools will also see fire alarm upgrades, but the board is awaiting final cost proposals.
The board also received an update from Jeremy Ortiz of Archis Design, the architect behind the renovation of Los Niños Elementary School. Ortiz told the board the new entrance will allow for better security control.
“We’re funneling all our security to that point,” he said. “And we’re going to have the playground fenced, so it’s going to be much more controlled throughout the day. This building is going to be a lot more secure now.”
Ortiz said the Los Niños renovation is on schedule, and that the initial design-development phase should be complete in the next few weeks. The district expects to start taking contract bids in September, and a contractor should be selected by October.
The board also approved a measure clearing the way to dispose of outdated computers and other electronics. According to Director of Technology John Tiernan, staff members have been visiting all City schools over the past two months inventorying, cataloging and preparing for the disposal of over 3,600 items.
The items would be sent to a recycling company that will certify proper disposal of the items in an environmentally-friendly manner.
When asked about the possibility of donating the outdated computers, Tiernan said the vast majority of equipment is no longer usable.
“A lot of it is physically broken, and the majority of this is at least 10 years old,” he said. “I would not recommend that we try to donate this equipment at all. It would be a burden on whoever got the equipment.”
In a previous meeting, the board approved the purchase of 231 new computers. Tiernan said this equipment would replace computers for every teacher and every computer lab in the district.
In other action at Thursday’s meeting, the board:
• Was scheduled to discuss detailed numbers from PARCC standardized testing, but those numbers are still unavailable. Superintendent Cooper blamed the delay on formatting issues with the data the state sent the district.
Aside from student scores, the district is waiting on the final percentage of students who took the test, which has a bearing on the district’s overall grade.
“That hasn’t been compiled yet,” Cooper said. “But it will be released shortly.”
• Discussed staffing vacancies, including the need for a special education teacher, secondary math teacher, elementary teacher, secondary art teacher, music teacher, secondary science teacher, several coaches, and a librarian.
The position the district is having the most difficulty filling is for a speech and language pathologist, a position the district has received no applications for. Board members attribute this to Las Vegas’ remote location, believing qualified candidates are seeking employment at larger districts in cities like Albuquerque or Las Cruces.
Board member Leroy Lujan suggested exploring the option of collaborating with West Las Vegas Schools to hire a pathologist to work for both districts. The board agreed to discuss the idea at a later date.
• Mentioned two key upcoming dates: The district’s next scheduled board meeting is Thursday, Aug. 16, 5:15 p.m., and the first day of school for students is Monday, Aug. 20.
