The Osceola County School Board outlined its line-item funding priorities for the upcoming legislative session, and Superintendent Dr. Mark Shanoff spoke emphatically about one.
While the Board approved a list that includes pushing for Rep. Paula Stark’s “Build-A-Bill” legislation about considering a small amount of free time between certain classes to allow for stress reduction and more efficient learning, environmental center enhancements and an aquatic facility adjacent to the new Nova Road high school at $1 million apiece for the last two, Shanoff talked specifically about a 24/7 security operations center.
At Tuesday’s Board meeting, he noted how such a center would provide continuous visibility of school campuses, protect school board property, and ensure student safety year-round at a cost of $750,000.
“This is something we have been wanting and working on for quite some time,” Shanoff said. “The reason we need to stand up a security center is because we are a large entity with a lot of property that requires 24/7, 365-day supervision. The enhancement would allow us to have a 3rd shift along with new updated camera and communication equipment that would allow us to have eyes on all our facilities to eliminate some of the burden that currently exists among law enforcement. We can do that in-house (with the enhancement).” These enhancements would create an ability to respond to threats in real time.
“When alerts come out, and they come at all hours, calls go to our school administrators, and they need to get in contact with law enforcement until they get to school the next time. This would bypass having to call school-based staff to respond to after-hours emergencies,” Shanoff said.
With this upgrade, the district’s Gaggle security app would be able to call the operations center and direct connect to 9-1-1 dispatchers to send authorities.
“We need to upgrade the communication equipment, we know we have to add a third shift,” Shanoff said. “The community-wide benefit would be significant, taking a lot of burden off our law enforcement partners and our staff. It’s a good investment to protect significant investments the public has already made in our school buildings.”
Osceola School District Director of Safety, Security, and Emergency Management Lester Yeates said the ability to streamline and speed up security responses is why he also is hoping the Legislature approves the funding.
“Those are all the reasons why we’ve been working toward this,” he said.
