Student and visitor safety, and its pursuit, continues to be an utmost priority for Trigg County Schools.
During Thursday night’s Board of Education meeting, members took in a lengthy presentation from Jeff Downs and Centegix — an Atlanta-based company with reach in 49 of America’s 50 states, as well as 17 school districts and 107 schools in Kentucky.
According to Downs, their network — completely independent of Wi-Fi and cellular towers — allows teachers and administrators to signal varying degrees of distress and concern at the click of a badge, with eight mashes creating a campus-wide lockdown made visible through flashing lights and screens, audible through intercoms and silent to first-responders and local authorities in the case of dire threat.
The warnings, Downs said, can be used not only for imminent danger, but also potential oncoming danger — such as warned weather, a serious medical event or a nearby incidents like police chases or similar trouble — and can be the difference between minute-by-minute and second-by-second response.
That coverage, Downs said, includes activation locators through mapped GPS of the entire campus, and if approved, new yellow visitor badges would ping up-to-the-second updates of their location onto a computer screen.
Following a question from member Mindy Hargrove, Downs did confirm that — if approved — an entirely separate digital system would have to be installed at the Trigg County Recreation Complex, if district officials wanted coverage over varsity softball, varsity baseball and varsity soccer, since that campus is miles away from downtown Cadiz.
Trigg Schools already uses a basic Centegix check-in system, and Downs said this proposed installation — which takes up to four months — would upgrade it.
This search also comes after ZeroEyes — an AI-scanning system that used the district’s already-installed cameras all over campus — didn’t prove to be as useful as intended, and was not renewed. The board is expected to make a decision on this proposal in the coming month.
In other schools news:
+ A pair of wrestling state champions were recognized again Thursday night, when middle-school 102-pound winner Kara Higgins and high-school 185-pound winner Makenna Hendricks enjoyed earned adulation from the board.
Members Theresa Cunningham Pool and Jamie Gapp called it “women’s history,” which is celebrated every March.
+ Chief Finance Officer Holly Greene confirmed that after a lengthy discussion with the IRS and the filing of a digital 990, the district has qualified for a $258,000 tax credit for its electric busses and charging installation. She said it means the overall project now cost the district less than $52,000.
+ And board members also approved the district raise proposed at last week’s working session, which is 3% for classed salary and certified teachers, as well as $1.25 an hour for regular classified employees.
