BR looks at security

BY STACI WILSON

Blue Ridge school director Edward Arnold recently toured the school as chair of the building and grounds committee in an effort to take a close look at campus security.

At the Monday, Jan. 18 meeting, Arnold told his fellow board members he noted several areas where security measures could be improved.

Arnold advocated for more training for teachers, including “active shooter” training; as well as offering State Police access to the school’s security cameras, and a direct telephone line to the school.

He also said that while the majority of the security cameras in the district were high-quality digital, the remaining analog cameras should be upgraded to digital.

Arnold also suggested changes to some of the district’s security protocol for visitors entering the school buildings.

Other suggestions included changes that could be made at no cost to the district, Arnold said.

Blue Ridge is now including minutes from its board committees to meet state Sunshine Law requirements. In the past, minutes from board committee meetings and board “workshop” meetings were not presented to the board for a vote.

Although he specifically mentioned committee meeting minutes, Board president Christopher Lewis did not mention if the “workshop” meeting minutes would also come before the board for approval.

The board approved a resolution to not raise taxes in the 2016-17 year by more than the 3.3 percent index set by the state Dept. of Education.

Lewis said that the resolution did not mean the district would raise taxes, but it served to give the board the ability to not raise taxes over the index amount.

Several policies were approved to reflect Pennsylvania School Board Association recommendations, including policies regarding bullying/cyberbullying; curriculum development; and budget plannings.

Lewis noted that policies entering a 30-day review phase were ones that had been 10 years without an update. He said that process of looking at the older policies on the books would continue throughout the year.

With the governor releases some funding in December, Blue Ridge received about 40 percent of its operating budget, reported business manager Brian Dolan.

The released of funds, Lewis said, lessened the financial pressure on the district but “not for very long.”

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