Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
NORTH MANCHESTER -ÊSchool administrators are eyeing their property.
Using the Safe Haven Grant, Manchester Community Schools updated $9,322 worth of safety tools among the four schools.
The high school added one tilt-pan-zoom camera and a digital video recorder to its eyes, according to high school assistant principal Randy Self. The cameras look down halls and scan parking lots.
"Nancy (Alspaugh, high school principal) and I think this is going to be very handy for us," said Self.
A password-protected Web site allows administrators to view the camera's real-time video from a computer's Internet connection.
A fixed camera was installed at Manchester Junior High School. Among the four schools, nine motion detectors were installed. Four detectors went to Manchester Elementary.
Service door intercoms were set up at both elementary schools and the junior high.
The grant paid $7,327 of the total bill. Capital Projects Fund dollars covered the difference, according to Self.
"We were fortunate to benefit from this year's grant," said Self. Grants and other available dollars could be drying up with the current economic situation.
In other business, the board:
• Said they received 14 superintendent applications.
The board will be in executive session today for training for the screening and interviewing process, said vice president Virginia Gunter.
No interviewing dates are set, she said.
• Announced that the task force, facing the elementary schools' reconfiguration issue, was divided into four separate subcommittees.
The groups are dealing with: finances; building use, staffing, class size and resources; school and community culture/climate; and transportation, said school board's task force representative Brad Perrott.
He said the task force will determine if more time is needed May 15 to study the issue. The task force's next meeting is April 24 to update their work.
The school board members are: president Sally Krouse, vice president Virginia Gunter, secretary Brad Perrott, Thom Frantz, Larry Miller, Todd Speicher, Kent Trickle, acting superintendent Kim Thurston and school corporation attorney Al Schlitt.
