The Schuylerville Central School District will move forward with roof repairs and security upgrades during the summer of 2018, causing programs and offices to temporarily relocate for the summer months. Repairs will take place at the elementary and high schools beginning the last week of June and will run through early August. Summer School for middle school and high school students will be housed at the middle school, along with the Extended School Year program, Kindergarten Readiness program and Driver’s Education. It is also important to note that all elementary school offices and high school offices, including student services, will be temporarily relocated to the middle school. All office phone extensions will remain the same.

While the district continues to await state approval of a $24.7 million capital project that voters approved in December 2016, administrators and the Board of Education decided to pull out the roof repairs and boiler replacement as separate projects, which were submitted for expedited review. Both projects were approved and bids for both projects were opened in December 2017. Boiler installation commenced during the April break and should be completed, along with roof repairs, by the end of August.

Security upgrades

The district has been granted final state approval of its Smart Schools Investment Plan, allowing the district to use the $1.3 million from the Smart Bonds approved by New York state residents in November 2014 to install new security features, technology upgrades and replace outdated classroom technology.

Under the plan, the district will replace all existing security cameras and increase interior and exterior coverage with higher resolutions. Additionally, the district will install a front entrance camera with the capability of identifying license plates entering the campus. The addition of ultra HD high-megapixel cameras will increase visibility on the campus’ parking lots and new camera software will be able to identify persons and vehicles for after-hours notification and increased capability.

A new visitor management system will be installed to track visitors to each school. During the school day, the system will require visitors to slide their state-issued ID in a system that then cross checks it with the sex offender database for all 50 states. It can also cross check IDs against custom databases set by each school that could contain custody alerts and banned visitors. After passing the system, each visitor will be issued a badge that identifies the visitor, date and purpose of the visit.

The funds from the Smart Schools Investment Plan will also be used to enhance access control. Panic buttons would be installed, along with the integration of district phones and mobile phones for automated lockdown notification capability.

The security upgrades are expected to be completed by the fall.