Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Smile! Emmet School Board Agrees To Install Cameras On Campus

Anyone with ideas about fooling around with the Emmet School should forget them now.

When the Emmet School Board met in regular session Monday, Aug. 3, it was decided to install a video monitoring security system.

Don Guthrie, with DGT Securities, proposed two different systems for the school, one using black and white cameras and the other utilizing color.

Color, he informed the board, will give better definition should someone break into the school. A total of 10 cameras will initially be mounted in the gym, library and classrooms.

The system, Guthrie said, can be multiplexed for 16 cameras. He told the board one camera can be viewed full screen while the rest continue recording. In fact, all 10 cameras can be viewed at one time, or one at a time can be watched with the others not being affected.

He also suggested the school go with real time viewing instead of time lapse. By doing this, Guthrie said, the district will get a better image with no disruption.

Additionally, by using real time photography the tapes only have to be changed about every three days.

The board agreed to go with a real time color system, and asked about sound as well.

Guthrie said a microphone in the camera would miss sounds from the back of a room. However, it was asked if a mike could be suspended from the center of a room and hooked into the camera. He said this was possible, and the board agreed to do it.

He said it would take four or five days to install the system, which will be in place by the time school begins Wednesday, Aug. 19.

In other business, elementary teachers have mastered using the Internet and all can work laptop computers. The teachers went to a workshop on this and all now have laptop systems. Each classroom also has an LCS projector so computer lessons can be shown on the screen.

However, the laptop computers are for teacher use only and will not be loaned to students for use.

The funds to purchase these systems were obtained through a grant.

Emmet High School should open with 107 students.

Principal Frank Henson said he'd like to begin a new program at Emmet to help teach students what will be required of them in the workplace.

Under the program, he said, students will actually "apply" for jobs and go to the workplace to see what is done.

The idea, Henson said, is to get this program operational for the second semester. It will help prepare the students for their future jobs as they will learn what will be required of them when they go to work for real.

Area businesses and industries will be sent letters of inquiry to see if they are interested in participating in the program. Henson said he will try and make sure the jobs are all centrally located so the students can be bused there and back instead of having to furnish their own transportation.

Once letters have been returned to the school, the board will again address this project.

Superintendent Dr. Gene Ross said a mistake was made on the school calendar.

Emmet will be hosting the district basketball tournament this year, but parent/teacher conferences had been scheduled at the same time.

The board agreed to move the conferences so there wouldn't be any conflict.

In July, the board discussed teacher incentives for not using sick days. Last year, Dr. Ross said, teachers averaged taking 6.5 sick days each. They are allowed to take up to nine per year, along with two personal days.

However, when teachers miss, substitutes must be hired. For non-certified instructors is amounts to $37 per day, and $43 daily for certified subs.

Dr. Ross said the teachers do need to be allowed to miss some time and still get a bonus (about $40 per day for each sick day not used).

The board agreed and voted to let the teachers take up to four sick days before losing their bonus. However, this move must be examined and approved by the district's personnel policy committee, returned to the board, approved by it again and then voted on by the teachers.