Take a shot at this

March 27, 2015

North and schools around the Omaha Public School (OPS) district are increasing their security equipment at the start of the 2015-2016 school year. The increase in security measures is based on the necessity of each school and part of the bond issue project.

At the beginning of November of 2014 there were signs around Omaha that read, “Vote Yes for OPS!” People were voting yes to the $421M bond issue project for OPS. It was the first time in 15 years, the OPS board asked voters to approve the bond issue.

Not only will the money be used in OPS schools to increase safety, but repair, renovate, and replace aging schools and equipment.

According to Omaha.com, Omaha Benson High School might get a $5 million career and technical education center, and the district was planning on spending about $70 million for four new schools, including two new high schools.

Gene Haynes, the school principal, said, “Safety is the utmost concern, and the reason for these censors is to increase security here.”

There will be an updated fire alarm system and similar security system for each school. At North there will be censors and cameras all over the school specifically; the music wing, entrance to the MPC, east and west wing, and the doors by the cafeteria.

At the main entry there will be a “cameras” in between the doors that will need to be accepted by the staff in the office. For the other locations of the school, there will be mechanism alarm that will tell the office where it is. The cameras and security guards will see who tried to leave or enter and their consequences will be followed by the code of conduct.

Haynes is hopeful the cameras will last a while, but with Nebraska weather, the censors might be affected.

There will also be swipe cards for the lower levels of the MPC, music wing, main entrance, and doors near the cafeteria as well. Bar codes are added to staff’s ID which will “give a lesson for the staff to carry their ID’s” Haynes stated.

Haynes also talked about how advanced and fast technology is, and how “There’s always improvement needed.”