Safety Dance

What is your idea of security? When I think of security in the generic sense I think of things like safe, protected, unable to be harmed or removed from the premises. When I must define security in the school system I come up with the same answer.

So about a year ago I proposed that we lock all doors to the buildings and install intercoms and door buzzers for entry during school hours. It’s a cheap reliable solution. Akron has done it for years with success. But as with most of my ideas it was met with eye rolling and all the reasons it was an impossible, outrageous, expensive idea. As usual I left frustrated that yet another simple cheap idea of mine was shot down.

So imagine my shock when “security” cameras were proposed on last weeks agenda and my further dismay in knowing I would be on vacation and unable to voice my dissent.

You see cameras do not provide security. They provide surveillance and monitoring as well as a record of what happened. Prevention is not a part of their job. They cannot stop anything from happening. They may deter a problem in their viewing area but not to level that a locked door does.

I want to know that our kids are safe not monitored. And contrary to a fellow members thinking, safety is a priority for me. Obviously academics are a priority; we are a board of education. Safety was also a priority in the community survey.

I was floored to read in the Falls News that for once in my life I would have been in the majority on this vote. Dang! The one time in my life my opinion was the majority opinion and I was on vacation! Sometimes life is full of irony.

Another ironic vote happened while I was away. For once in my term I was willing to add a new position. A benefits coordinator was something the auditors have been recommending we add and it is the only new position proposed that I actually felt would have saved the tax payer money and paid for itself. In fact the CFO presented a cost-benefit analysis showing that the position would pay for itself and then some. Insurance and prescription costs are going to kill us if we don’t get it under control. It didn’t even get a motion so discussion could take place. So sad.