By KYLE WIND
Freeman staff

KINGSTON — The $280,000 federal grant to improve security at Kingston High School will help pay for nine surveillance cameras but will require matching funds from the school district, the superintendent said this week.

Gerard Gretzinger did not say how much money the district will have to put up to receive the two-year Secure Our Schools grant, which is coming from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

But “we will not be adding anything to our budget to pay for things in the grant,” Gretzinger said. He said “most” of the money was “already included in our budget,” though he would not be more specific.

Besides the cameras, the grant will help pay for high-tech identification cards and staff training and support. Gretzinger did not know when the cameras might be installed, but in a press release, district officials said the video surveillance system will provide “24/7 monitoring of entrances and exits.”

The press release did not address the fact that the number of cameras to be purchased is far fewer than the 50-plus doors that lead in an out of the Broadway high school, though the majority of those doors are kept locked during the school day and presumably would not have to be monitored.

Board of Education member Christopher Farrell, who sits on the district’s Safety Committee, has said he believes most of the grant money will go toward setting up cameras both inside and outside the buildings on the KHS campus and that they will be deployed in places that have been “problem areas” with “not as much adult supervision.”

Some of the grant money also will be used to elevate the school’s photo identification system for students and staff “to a greater level of technological sophistication.”

Under the new system, according to the press release, students will have to swipe their ID cards to enter and exit “major school portals, like the cafeteria and library.” Gretzinger noted, however, that only staff members will be able to use their badges to unlock doors.

The grant also will fund a part-time safety office secretary at the high school, an information technology specialist to help maintain the video cameras and archive database, and additional monitors in the cafeteria, district officials have said.

Gretzinger said positions funded by the grant already are in this year’s school district budget so half of their salaries will be paid. Continued...

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Gretzinger did not respond to an e-mail inquiry about which part of the current budget will fund the district’s portion of the security camera expenses.

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