Super surveillance cameras coming to MHS

Arguably, the highlight of last Wednesday night’s Malta School Board meeting was a presentation on surveillance cameras by the tech firm Avigilon Security Solutions that prompted responses from the audience of “wow” and “that’s incredible.”

The presentation was conducted so Malta School Board Trustees could see the latest and greatest in surveillance equipment as the software and hardware currently at the high school is out of date. For nearly 45 minutes, Avigilon representatives showed the Board of Trustees live streams from current cameras set up around the world. In one instance, the Avigilon representative highlighted a car in a parking lot and with a couple of flicks of his wrist, was able to pinpoint exactly when the car arrived in the parking lot and who the driver was (a process which would take many hours on Malta’s current system.) The system also allows administrators to watch surveillance from cell phones, check face recognition across dozens of cameras as well as set up an automated, verbal alert which would come across a speaker and announce something along the lines of “you are trespassing, you are being watched and the police have been alerted to your presence."

Following the presentation, the Board of Trustees unanimously voted in favor of the $60,000 upgrade. Funds for the upgrades will come from several sources including the school’s technology fund and the building reserve fund.

“We are looking at student safety and that is the key thing,” Board Chair Mark Knudsen said.

New Chrome, Text Books

In other updated news at the school board meeting, trustees approved a request to purchase 110 new Google Chromebooks. At the middle school level, Principal Shawn Bleth said that 60 of the Chromebooks will go toward outfitting three classrooms. He said the current Chromebooks on campus have been durable over the last two years and have proved to be worth the price of purchase (the computers cost $210 this year, much cheaper than laptops, and don’t require expensive hardware or operating systems as Google provides those for free on the internet.)

Another purchase approved at the middle school level was that of new science books to replace the current books at the school, some of which are over 10-years old. A total of 135 science books (earth, life and physical sciences) were approved at a cost of $12,175.47.

Student Handbook

The final item under new business during Wednesday night’s meeting was to approve the 2017-18 Student Handbook. Last February, the Board of Trustees voted 3-2 to make a mid-school year change to the handbook allowing three wrestlers who did not qualify for last week’s State Wrestling Tournament in Billings to travel on the team bus to attend the event. The school’s administration argued against that change as students (most notably cross country and speech and drama) had made previous requests for students to attend state meets though they hadn’t qualified for them and were told they could not by school officials, per the student handbook.

At the most recent meeting, Board of Trustee members were asked to approve next year’s handbook, leaving the section about who can go to state and how many players from each team can attend the same as they were last year. Trustees Carter Clausen, Levi Tatafu and Kevin Koss voted in favor of the 2017-18 Student Handbook for Malta High School and Board Chair Mark Knudsen and Trustee Greg Skiff voted against. The agenda item passed 3-2 in favor and the Board of Trustees retain the right to change the book as they see fit during the year.

Malta Elementary School Principal Report

During the outset of the standing committee reports, Board Chair Knudsen asked Malta Middle School Principal Bleth and Malta Elementary School Principal Theodore Schye to decide who would give their report first and Principal Bleth quipped, 'age before beauty."

"Well, I don't know how I would go first and go last," Principal Schye retorted.

"I walked right into that one," Principal Bleth admitted.

Principal Schye reported that next year's kindergarten projected enrollment is 37 for the 2017-18 school year and total enrollment for the school next year is at 242 (the school ended at 243 last year.)

"We are holding very steady," Principal Schye reported.

Principal Schye said that before the 2016-17 school year was over, elementary school students were asked to vote on which new piece of playground equipment would be purchased and installed next year. He said the vote was close (103-98) to purchase a Hex Nut Revolution Hub — a "play experience for the future that challenges kids age 5-12 to push themselves further, through an intricate web of ropes and platforms," according to the product's brochure from Playcraft Systems.

Principal Schye said the Hex Nut beat out a small zip-line and the equipment was purchased with $10,5000 earned by students through fund-raising. Principal Schye asked the Board to consider footing the bill of $1,500 to install the new piece of equipment and they did.

Principal Schye said summer school is up and running, lasting from 8 a.m. until noon and focuses on reading and math for students K-through-5.

The next regular school board meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 12 at 7 p.m. in the Malta Middle School Workroom.