MUKILTEO — The Mukilteo School District plans to have digital cameras installed at all its schools this fall, part of a security upgrade paid for with money from the district’s 2014 bond issue.
“We’ve had a limited number of cameras, but at secondary schools,” said Andy Muntz, school district spokesman. New cameras will be installed districtwide as part of a plan to increase security, he said.
Additional cameras will be added at the district’s high schools in common areas such as hallways, staircases, the cafeteria and outside the buildings, he said. No cameras will be installed in classrooms, restrooms or locker rooms.
Plans call for surveillance cameras to be added to monitor middle school exteriors, he said.
Images from the cameras can be watched “live,” but no one will be monitoring the images continually, Muntz said. Most of the time, images from the cameras are used in disciplinary cases, such as an incident at Kamiak High School where students set off firecrackers in a hallway, he said.
The cost of the security cameras and their installation is estimated at $500,000.
The money for the project came from $119.15 million bond issue approved by voters two years ago.
The Mukilteo School Board is scheduled to consider an update to its surveillance policy at its June 13 meeting. The policy allows the images to be viewed by school district officials and police for suspected violations of school policy or laws.
It says the videos will be kept for “a short period of time” before being deleted or copied over, but no specific time period is mentioned.
The district joins others throughout the county in beefing up security, including Everett, Marysville, and Monroe.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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