School Safety Measures Move Forward

HARRISONBURG — Administrators in Rockingham County Schools hope to get a broader view of the comings and goings at local schools through camera upgrades being made to area middle schools.

 

Cameras are being installed by Hawk Security, based in Harrisonburg, at each county middle school — Elkton, J. Frank Hillyard, Montevideo and Wilbur Pence. Once complete, each school will be outfitted with a 16-camera system.

 

The project will cost the division $27,837. Each school’s project came with a different price tag, because the work was dependent on how many cameras each school already has.

 

Installing the cameras is one of a few ongoing projects in Rockingham County Schools to upgrade safety.

 

The Rockingham County School Board voted Monday night to hire Harrisonburg-based Rhodenizer Construction Company to build a safer entrance at Plains Elementary School for $96,939. The company was the lowest bidder for the project.

 

After the new entrance is completed, visitors to the school will have to stop in a locked vestibule and be filtered through the main office to check in before entering the school.

 

Rockingham County Schools, as well as Harrisonburg City Schools, made installing the entrances a priority following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December.

 

Earlier this month, the Rockingham County School Board voted to move forward with installing safer entrances at six other elementary schools as well, for $194,107.

 

The cameras and the Plains vestibule came in under original estimates for the projects, according to Steve Reid, director of maintenance for county schools.

 

Contact Emily Sharrer at 574-6286 or esharrer@dnronline.com