Carson City School District to undergo surveillance upgrade

The Carson City School Board approved a $547,071.19 surveillance system for the district to be installed this coming fall.

The security system will provide exterior and interior cameras for all of the schools in the district. The number of cameras will vary from site to site, but it will expand the locations on each site.

School Board President Joe Cacciopo said the current system is so outdated, it could be described as “a half-inch floppy disk.”

The new cameras will cover more of the exterior and parking lots of many of the sites, including one on the football field at Carson High School. Several board members talked about the necessity of the football field cameras after the vandalism that occurred on the field in June.

Ann Wiswell, risk manager for the district, said the new system is vital for the district because the technology is more advanced than the current system. She said most of the current system is nearly nine years old and runs on analog and IP video. This new system will have a different, DVR-like connection to record the footage.

The new cameras will have better zoom quality as well Wiswell said. So when administrators and district staff need to go back and look up footage, the video won’t get as pixilated when they try to view frames.

“The zoom is amazing,” Wiswell said. “We will have new and better technology.”

There will be a variety of new cameras, from tiny, low profile ones in the hallways to single unit cameras on the exterior that have 360 degree capabilities.

Another benefit of these cameras is the system can be integrated into a variety of systems, including the alarms and access control.

The district will pay $547,071.19 for the system for the first three years, then will have to renew the software every two years after that.

The school board unanimously voted in favor of the new cameras.

Installation will begin in Carson High in September and the rest of the sites should be completed within the next few months, coordinated around other construction projects. The new system also will phase out the old one so there won’t be lapses in the security.