Middle School Cameras Planned for Next Year

With an eye toward tracking traffic inside Upper Moreland Middle School, the district is looking to install security cameras. 

Originally, cameras and the ability to make the school wireless were to be completed over the summer, along with the bulk of roughly $5 million in middle school renovations.

But, District Business Manager Michael J. Braun said the bids received last month were too high in one instance and missing relevant details in the other. 

The projects will be rebid in October, according to Braun.

Once installed, Superintendent Bob Milrod told Patch that the cameras would give the district the ability to track traffic within the middle school building.

In the high school, where they are already in place, Milrod said cameras have “proven invaluable.”

“On a regular basis our security cameras are used to identify things that occur in the high school and try to follow up on them,” Milrod said. “We’ve been able to use the cameras at the high school when there have been reports of theft from a locker or a locker room.”

Cameras are also helpful when students are involved in physical fights, he said.

“You have it on tape,” he said, adding that it can be “handed over to the law authorities.”

Unlike the district’s raptor entry system, which requires that school visitors be buzzed in, officials said cameras are not necessarily intended as an added safety/security measure.

“Security cameras do not stop events from happening,” Braun said. “Security cameras record.”