By the end of the coming school year, the Upper Grand District School Board plans to have surveillance cameras at every elementary school across the board.
The initiative is part of a years-long plan by the board to deter vandalism and negative schoolyard incidents, said Brent McDonald, superintendent of education responsible for information technology at UGDSB.
“It is probably the most effective deterrent that we have for things like vandalism or incidents that may happen,” said McDonald of the cameras.
The installation of surveillance cameras at area elementary schools followed a similar initiative at area UGDSB high schools, which was completed a number of years ago, said McDonald.
As plans to install video surveillance cameras at area schools evolved, so did UGDSB’s video surveillance policy, which governs the use of those cameras.
McDonald said the cameras are intended to be used for investigative purposes only. They cannot be used for active surveillance, meaning no one is allowed to watch what is happening at the schools live in real time.
“It is always around investigating of something that may have happened or an event that may have happened,” said McDonald. “In our policy it is very clearly stated it is for researching past events and can’t be used in live time.”
The cameras do not replace the monitoring of children by school staff and volunteers during recess, said McDonald.
“This is purely an add on to what we have,” he said.
Only a few key people in each school can view the footage, said McDonald.
“That access, whenever it is granted or viewed, is logged and tracked so we have a record of when something was viewed and the intent of why it may be viewed,” he said.
Police would be allowed to work with school staff to access the cameras for serious incidents, said McDonald.
“If we needed to, we could have their teams engage with us and use the video surveillance cameras for the safety of students in those extreme cases,” he said.
Although the cost for installing the cameras can vary from school to school, McDonald estimates the cost per unit at about $1,300, including installation.
“There is a whole different set of standards now versus five or 10 years ago when a lot of it was tape and video recorders. We have a lot more options at our disposal,” said McDonald.
Some schools could have as few as three cameras, said McDonald, while larger schools and high schools could have many more.
The board has to find a balance between having safe and secure schools while offering a welcoming environment, said McDonald.
UGDSB plans to have surveillance in all of its elementary schools by the end of this coming school year.
The hope is to mitigate costs that can be associated with vandalism to schools, including graffiti and broken windows.
“Replacing the back row of a set of windows off of a playground that doesn’t face the street multiple times a year exceeds a $1,300 camera that is installed. It’s a great deterrent in that respect,” said McDonald, as an example.
