School Board members from the Clear Lake Community School District, at their Jan. 9 meeting, agreed to purchase new Verkada security cameras and a licensing agreement for the entire district from Riverside Technologies, Inc. in the amount of $232,757.
Clear Lake School Superintendent Doug Gee said, “We are continually working to provide the best safety and security for our students and staff.”
Last month the school district received the approval to utilize their $50,000 per building Safety Grant money and they heard presentations from two companies that submitted bids for the new camera system, the Verkada system from Riverside Technologies, Inc. and the Gentotec system from Electronic Engineering in Mason City, the company they currently do business with.
After the initial trial run of the Verkada system at Clear Creek Elementary, with great results, the school board approved the purchase. “These cameras will be so much better than what we have. Better video quality, ability to track from camera to camera much more effectively and quicker,” Gee said. “They will be cloud based instead of being housed on an internal server in the district.”
Gee explained that the cloud based cameras will allow the video to be saved for an entire year and school administrators, as well as the Clear Lake Police Department, will now be able to access the cameras remotely from their phones, which allows for a quicker response time.
Instead of visitors just signing in and out of the building on a piece of paper, the new workplace license now requires visitors to check in with their drivers license. After the system does a quick background check, a badge is printed which can track the visitor’s whereabouts anywhere on school property. Elementary principal Brandon Borseth said a few parents didn’t want to wait for a few extra minutes, but most understood why this measure was necessary. Gee said that with Verkada they also will be able to upload a picture of a person that is not allowed in or around the school. If that person is picked up on the cameras the system will instantly notify the administrator of that building.
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The Board finally made a move on a matter they have had tabled since the November 2023 meeting. Tony Laudner, Director of Buildings, Grounds and Transportation for the Clear Lake district was looking into solar energy for the school. In November he said he received a couple of different proposals from companies that sell the solar equipment. Laudner told the Board that they could buy the equipment, install and maintain it and the school district, “…would get all the benefit from what that would generate from solar energy,” he said.
The other alternative was a lease agreement with Alliant. The company would install their solar panels on the roof of the Clear Lake Middle School and maintain them. In return, for use of the space, they would pay the school district $13,671 annually, a little over $1,000 a month. “We really felt like it’s probably in the best interest to just lease,” Laudner said. “It’s also a good PR thing from a standpoint of we’re trying to be environmentally friendly.”
After trying to negotiate for an increased monthly payment Gee finally informed the Board, “Alliant will not increase the amount of the lease payment. I still believe this is a good thing for the school to do. It’s $13,000 going into the General Fund.”
The Board unanimously approved the lease agreement. A decision on when the installation of the panels will take place at a later date
