School district receives money to improve security

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Poughkeepsie High School. MHNN file photo.

POUGHKEEPSIE – The Poughkeepsie City School District (PCSD) has received a $500,000 grant to purchase security cameras, improve screening equipment, and purchase additional security equipment.  The district has been plagued with violent incidents since the students returned in September.

The School Violence Prevention grant awarded to the PCSD is one of 153 entities in the nation and one of only five in New York to receive the funding.

Da’ Ron Wilson, the district’s director of community engagement said the $500,000 grant application called for obtaining two handheld metal detectors for use at the high school and middle school, but the district plans to seek a modification that will allow it to purchase scanning stations that automatically scan bags to help speed the flow of traffic into the schools at arrival time.

Another physical improvement funded by the grant will be to add safety glazing to first-floor windows at all district buildings – 160 in total. And, while specifics are being worked out, additional technology will create a virtual lockdown system with at least two locations at which district leadership can access all cameras in the district as well as the necessary lockdown equipment.

A virtual network with the City of Poughkeepsie Police would provide department leadership and patrol officers with access to district cameras and computers for the purposes of improving response times and pinpointing a more precise location of an incident.

A mass notification system with an anonymous tip hotline is also planned.

According to the district, the grant application will provide the new metal detectors, virtual network, and mass notification system by the second quarter of the grant period.

The lockdown system would be implemented within the next six months and safety glazing of the windows completed by the fourth quarter of the grant period.




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