The EL dorado union high school district (here in after referred to as the district) is located in northern california within the sierra foothills between sacramento and lake tahoe

The district serves the families on the western slope of EL dorado county. The district's current enrollment of 6716 students are supported by approximately 675 certificated and classified staff. The district is committed to educating each studentin a safe, secure and supportive environment that will challenge students to pursue appropriate, rigorous paths for academic and career development and achievement thatleadto lifelong learning and a productive adulthood. Students and staff want to feel safe on campus. The district provides the community with four comprehensive high schools, one district managed charter school, and one continuation school. The dedicated staff and well-maintained facilities create a positive 21ST century learning environment where students excel and pursue their personal goals, academic interests, and prepare for post-secondary success. Unfortunately, we hear news reports covering emergency situations which occur in school communities across the country. Reports that include: assaults, severe bullying which have led to suicide, gang fights, theft, vandalism, and tragically school shootings.social media has contributed to the increase in student involved incidents at district schools. Young people often make questionable decisions during these formative years. Kids want to belong, to be accepted by their peers. Social media apps allow kids to increase their following by uploading their videos to these platforms. Serious consequences arise when social media apps are encouraging destructive behavior among our youth today. Social medias most egregious scenarios come from tiktok. Our schools have seen tiktok challenges that resulted in destruction of school property, consumption of dangerous items on campus, damages to the cafeterias, bullying activities and even slap the teacher. The snapchat has become a community billboard for posting fight locations and times. Students gather in an area with their phones ready to tape the altercation. One of our campuses after a student posted on snapchat saw a gang related fight that resulted in the following injuries: one broken jaw, sixth teeth knocked out and two broken wrists. The district is dedicated to a proactive approach to providing a safe and secure education community for our students and staff as threats evolve. The district has dedicated substantial resources over the past few years to strengthen critical security infrastructure district-wide. The district invested resources in catapult EMS software to improve communication between administration, staff and first responders during emergency situation. A new alarm, bell and PA system was installed district wide. Doors throughout the district have been replaced with columbine style locks to keep students and staff secure during lockdown situations. The district hired, trained and placed four new deans of student services this past year. Studies have shown that increasing the number of counselors or assistant principals on campus can have a positive effect on the school environment. The deans are consistently named by students and staff as the most positive change seen in the district this past year. The district sumitted and was awarded a tobacco-use prevention education grant which allowed US to staff friday night live clubs at all four comprensive school sites. All of these efforts have been in response to the district's goal of providing the community with asafe secure learning environment the next step for the EL dorado union high school district in our efforts to improve the security and safety of our students, staff and community is to commit resources to updating the security cameras at all four comprehensive school sites, three alternative education sites, district office, district warehouse and transportation yard. The district not only has a legal but also a moral obligation to maintain a safe secure environment for our students, staff and community. We are entrusted by the community to maintain safe and secure campuses. Educational institutions walk a fine line between security and maintaining the students and staffs right to privacy. Security cameras have long been proven to be effective in enhancing campus security. Security cameras and video surveillance can deter theft, mischief, vandalism, car theft, and potential threats including assaults, bullying and active school shooters. The district can combat bullying with use of cameras to prevent escalation by detecting aggressive movement, fights, gang symbols and social media staging areas ahead of a fight. While, security cameras are widely considered first and foremost about evidence, they can be instrumental in deterring criminal behavior and capturing emergency situations that may require immediate assistance from administrators, staff and/or the school resource officers. For example: social media is used by students to send messages of possible fights and locations allowing students time to gather prior to the event. Video surveillance can alert administration to students gathering in an area. The SRO and other campus staff may be directed to the area to investigate. Thereby deterring the students away from the area and preventing the fight. Witnesses many times have been proven to be unreliable when asked to recall events or situations. Cameras help to eliminate ambiguities while producing clear images of a crime or incident as IT occurred. Security cameras are in place not only to capture criminal or suspicious activity but to prove innocence as well. There have been many instances where a student was found to be innocent after reviewing images taken from video surveillance. The school resource officers will have access to the cameras during school hours to monitor activity on campus. The sros can use footage from the cameras for their investigations into incidents on campus. Determining the security needs at each site was the responsibility of the assigned assistant principal. The assistant principal, lead microcomputer technician, school resource officers, assistant superintendent of business services and director of maintenance and operations walked each campus to determine the scope of the project. Site maps were used to notate current camera locations as well as areas where additional cameras would be beneficial. The technology department worked with each assistant principal to determine the number and type of camera needed on each of the campuses. The estimated cost to replace the districts aging security cameras is 1.3 million dollars. The cameras currently used on our campuses were last replaced in 2008. Technology, functionality and visual clarity have changed greatly in the past fifteen years. The project will consist of two phases. The first phase has been approved and implementation scheduled for june 2023. Phase one of the project will replace the oldest most outdated cameras at each of the four comprehensive school sites, EL dorado high school, OAK ridge high school, ponderosa high school and union mine high school. Phase one is budgeted at $600, 000. And will be implemented over the summer while campuses are closed. Phase two will consist of camera replacement at three alternative education sites: pacific crest academy, independence high school and EL dorado east campus, and will include new cameras being added to the district office, district warehouse and transportation yard. Phase two will also include additional cameras added to the four comprehensive school sites (EL dorado, OAK ridge, ponderosa and union mine) to improve access and visibility where IT is currently lacking. The district will piggyback off pricing from the interlocal purchasing system (tips). The lead microcomputer technician, jason king was able to negotiate the price of licensing down significantly from the tips piggyback contract. Riverside technologies was selected from the tips program and will provide all of the cameras and licensing for the district. The district will purchase accessories and wiring through our partners in the community. The installation team recommends that existing mounting accessories and wiring be used prior to committing to new. The district desires to be responsible stewards of our resources and will plan to reuse as much of our existing material as available. Any camera that has been determined to be relevant and useful will be moved to a site within the district that will benefit from the placement that for example the district office or pacific crest academy. The district plans to offset the cost of labor by staying in-house to install the new cameras. Representatives from verkada will site train district staff on installation and implementation of the new cameras. The cost of labor will be absorbed through existing contracts. Overtime pay is anticipated with this project and has been budgeted in to the overall cost of the project. The EL dorado union high school district would like to thank the department of justice fand the cops school violence prevention program for their consideration of this application. We hope that you find this project to be within the scope of your program.