Three school security capital items — access control, cameras and mass notification — will be voted on by the Board of Education Monday night.
However, if the board passes the $851,113 purchase, the items will still have to face approval from the Board of Finance as well as a town meeting, according to Section 10-2 of the town’s charter.
In addition, a copy of any such request must be sent to the Board of Selectmen.
The Board of Finance then has 15 days to decide both the amount and where the money would come from for these “additional appropriation” items.
If approved, the Board of Finance would need to schedule a town meeting to get approval to provide the additional appropriations.
The request will not come as a surprise. The boards of Finance, Education, and Selectmen have been working together on the school security capital items for a couple of months.
“While I can’t speak for the other members of my board, the Board of Education, Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance have been discussing these capital requests, in which case, the money would come from 20-year bonds — as will the $3.7 million of capital items approved by votes in May,” said Board of Finance Chairman Dave Ulmer.
Mr. Ulmer said there was an additional source of the money — the General Fund surplus, which has been used for taxpayer relief at budget time.
However, this money is meant to be a “rainy day fund in case of unexpected operating expense overruns in Board of Selectmen or Board of Education budgets.”
It has been more than a decade since the General Fund surplus was last requested, according to Mr. Ulmer.
The School Security Committee recommended the three capital items to the Board of Education at a meeting on June 10.
Craig Tunks, the district’s director of information and operations development, presented the items and what they would include.
Access control, which includes new “two-barrier” doors, will cost $374,207, including the $154,204 cost of replacing locks on both exterior and interior doors.
Security cameras, which Mr. Tunks said police can access immediately during a state of emergency, will cost $325,906.
The mass notification system, which is intended to notify everyone in the school and “reduce response time to increase safety,” will cost $151,000, including the $31,000 cost of new announcement speakers.
All three items, if approved for purchase, could be installed over the summer before school starts again in late August.