Southold School Board discusses adding new security measures
At Wednesday’s Southold School Board meeting, member Brian Tobin recalled when Southold alumni admitted to entering the high school building through the back doors in years past.
“That was back when they were students,” he said. “I know we had discussed putting alarms onto the doors so if they’re opened the office gets notified.”
Incidents such as the one Mr. Tobin described as well as routine security updates prompted the board to discuss additional security precautions that could be taken at the high school and elementary school.
Superintendent David Gamberg said some of the most-used entry and exit doors in the district do have alarms, but installing more in both schools, as Mr. Tobin suggested, would be a “simple fix.” Mr. Gamberg said the alarms would cost roughly $100 each.
“They’re battery-operated, very inexpensive and we can continue to do that at key locations,” Mr. Gamberg said.
As part of the district’s $9.7 million capital project more lighting was added to the campus parking lots and external cameras were mounted outside the schools earlier this year.
The superintendent said the external surveillance system records up to 30-days of footage. He added that the district is working on improving surveillance.
“We’re now going to enhance that and add additional cameras to catch and to observe other areas that we did not already capture in the existing scope of work,” Mr. Gamberg said.
Board president Paulette Ofrias said the district is considering adding additional internal cameras throughout the elementary and high school.
Photo caption: Superintendent David Gamberg and board members discussed school safety Wednesday. (Kate Nalepinski photo)
