Security upgrades for seven Longview schools gets board approval | Education

Olympic, St. Helens, Robert Gray, Mint Valley and Kessler elementary schools, as well as Mark Morris and Discovery high schools, likely will see the equipment installed by Aug. 31, district communications director Rick Parrish told the Longview School Board on Monday.

The cost of the vestibules, taken from the district’s current capital projects and technology levy, is $560,333. Each project ranges in cost from $38,000 to $89,000 depending on how much work needs to be done to install the hardware at each school.

“A security vestibule is when you come up to the front doors of a school, you’d be able to press a button and you’d be on camera and you’d have voice to the secretary or inner office,” Parrish said. “We would be able to identify you and understand what it is that you needed to interact with at the school.”

Front office employees could either buzz the visitor in or meet them outside, Parrish said. If someone is invited in, that person would enter a separate set of locked doors before being escorted inside.

Surveyed Longview community members have consistently listed school security as a top priority, Parrish said.

Before putting this plan in motion, Parrish said they toured schools in Vancouver with similar security processes and consulted with Longview school principals. They settled on the vestibule concept because it seemed to have the most positive response and then they secured a contract with Pacific Tech Construction, Inc. to carry out the work.

The district can only fund seven schools for now in what Parrish called “phase one” of a larger effort to upgrade security in all schools. When possible bidders were first scoped for the projects, Parrish said he received estimates that it would cost around $520,000 from the capital projects levy. Recent cost inflation and supply chain issues resulted in a higher price tag.

If the district’s proposed capital projects and technology levy passes, which voters will decide by April 26, it will fund “phase two” to install the hardware in schools throughout the rest of the district.

Though Pacific Tech has a deadline of Aug. 31, Parrish said with ongoing supply chain issues and cost inflation, the school district will work with the company to ensure the project gets done as soon as possible. Technically, the contract includes a $200 fee for every day Pacific Tech goes beyond its deadline, but Parrish said they want to first work alongside them and recognize some of the challenges many construction companies have faced.

“It’ll certainly depend on how quickly all the materials can be procured,” Parrish said. “That’s really a driver in all of our projects now.”

The district also will spend $166,737 to have Tri-Coast Construction repaint the outside of Northlake and Olympic elementary schools. Following Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, the construction workers will first remove the currently peeling lead-based paint. The project will take place during the summer so students do not have any exposure. Tri-Coast is projected to finish by Aug. 25.

“When the school looks nice, there’s pride in that,” board member Jennifer Leach said.

Board members unanimously passed both project bids.

The board also heard the annual report on special education in the district, which showed 18.2% or 1,133 Longview students were eligible for special education services. The state funding index for districts is 13.5%, meaning that 4.7% gap is filled through local taxes.

Elizabeth West, executive director of special education, said data shows more enrolled students in 2021 had autism spectrum disorders than in 2019. West said they hope to add more specialists for these students and establish an “autism department,” though it has become more difficult to fill those positions than before the pandemic.

Trained specialists essentially lost a year of field work necessary to complete their studies, West said, resulting in a shortage of applicants.

Specific learning disabilities among enrolled students went down from 2019, West said.

For the upcoming 2022-23 school year, West said she hopes the department trains more educators in crisis prevention and improves on parent-teacher communications so caregivers can better understand the process of referring their children to special education services. West said they expect more referrals into special education next year.

“It’s not just access, it’s meaningful access,” West said. “You really need to look at each child and determine the right placement for them.”