Inside New Berlin

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Linda ~

I watch your eagle-eyed reports closely regarding the school board issues.  In Franklin, some of our schools are a few minutes from the House of Correction, where prisoners have escaped.

Back in November I happened to blog about these types of cameras, and also about an article call "The First of All Fears."  I hope you won't mind me linking to those on your blog.

blogs.franklinnow.com/.../smile-kids-you-re-on-live-camera.aspx

blogs.franklinnow.com/.../quot-the-first-of-all-fears-quot.aspx

An article came out today in "Campus Safety" for educators that states there are between 2,000-3,000 camera "systems" out in the schools throughout the country right now.  (Making the Leap To IP Video - A Safer Bet.   www.campussafety.com (Sept/Oct 08).

I'm so jealous of New Berlin and how they are on top of things...webcasting their meetings and now protecting their students with this system.

I do agree with you in one respect...this is not a joking matter.  First...this only needs to be linked to the police department.  Nowhere else.  Not to a superindendents home...not to Hawaii....that is a breach of privacy.  That needs to be looked into.  No one needs to be looking in on the school when they are not working on school time - not when they  are away on vacation.  

I'm having the same problem in Franklin with elected officials not thinking before they are speaking in public.  Blurting out off-the wall comments.

Bottom line...I'd take the system in Franklin in a minute...directly linked to the Police Department only.  You are light years ahead of us.  We are in the dark ages even though our Board keeps touting "21st Century" every chance they get.

Good luck!

Re: the Asst. Superintendent's remark,  I agree, this is not a joking matter.  What the Asst. Superintendent said about being able to watch the images of NB West School--- in Hawaii,  raised a red flag and made me wonder who will have access to them and when.  

To reiterate: Administration described NB West as not having serious problems.

It failed to publicly explain or justify why spending $60,000 for the surveilance camera system for West was warranted to remedy problems at the school.   Instead, it stressed that the system would be "pro-active" rather than "re-active".

West is one of  two middle- high schools in New Berlin. The other one, Eisenhower has a similar number of students.  It  does not have a camera surveillance system.  Eisenhower is in need of costly upgrades. In fact, the Superintendent has publicly identified about $44 million of needs at Eisenhower.

Did you know that the District had already spent about $35 million on West renovation/upgrades?

Now the Superintendent sought and got Board approval for $60,000 for a camera surveillance system for West.

This camera surveillance system seems more of a "want" than a "need".

And it raises a question about District priorities.

Did you know that Standardized test scores and ACT scores have fallen in the District?  

I attend SB meetings often. The Superintendent and Board rarely ever discuss educational issues like student learning, curriculum, class sizes, programs, etc. at them. Instead they often discuss or have reports on facilities. They spend time, effort,  funds on what could be considered non-essentials like electric scrolling signs, a field house,  and high tech stuff like the camera surveillance and video streaming of board meetings.

And I must disagree with you. If they were REALLY on top of things, they wouldn't have neglected to publish the minutes of several of their school board meetings (May and June) as required by law!  Nor would tney have "forgotten" to publish one of the notices of the District Annual Meeting (held in July).

Thanks for covering this Linda. I'm not quite sure why American's are so happy to give up our freedoms and privacy here on our own soil and then travel the world to fight elsewhere  with the idea of giving other people freedom but that's what we are doing these days.

I can see the police using a camera as a tool to temporarily deal with a problem but no camera should be left in place on a long term basis to spy on students all day long as they go about their normal lives. No camera should be hooked up to the internet. We already know that despite taking security measures hackers get into virtually anything they want. Governor Palin just had her e-mail account hacked into and hijacked. Now she has personal stuff posted all over the internet, including pictures of her children. Think of all the major companies who have been hacked into and had their customers very private data stolen and used to steal their identities. I'm sure security measures are used by all these companies and yet they can't keep out the hackers. If you utilize the internet you can't insure that "only the police department" will be able to look in. Any camera used on the children should only be temporary to help solve a serious problem. It should only be operated by the police and should not be hooked up to the internet. I'm surprised our local paper and media as well as parents and students are not all over this development. Perhaps once the cameras are hanging on the walls and everyone becomes aware of what's being done there will be an uproar. That's how it usually works. Unfortunately all that money will have already been spent. Money which could have been used to improve education or clean the bathrooms on a daily basis instead of every few days.

We use to  shake our heads and pity the people who had to live in countries that placed their citizens under such abusive scrutiny. Now we are becoming those people. It's always easier to control people when they have less freedoms and rights. Why so many of our citizens are willing to throw so much away in the name of security I will never understand. Maybe Superintendent Kreutzer and the members of the school board will reconsider potentially exposing all these children to worldwide broadcast. This is not clear thinking on their parts.

Linda,

Actually I saw your report regarding the minutes and notices.  That's unacceptable.  

You attend your meetings, as I attend mine..so you would be the judge of what is being covered in your school system  I respect that.

Obviously, curriculumn has to come first - of course safety beng included.

I'll go back to my district now and just observe over here.  There, we are doing fine on curriculum...we are having problems in other areas.

Janet

Here’s more re: Board members’ actions & priorities:

The School Board voted UNANIMOUSLY to allocate up to $60,000 for this “proactive” Web-based camera surveillance system at West.  

And yet, as  I pointed out in my Jan. 16 blog entry titled “NBPS Dire Needs”, 3 board members---including  current Board President Matt Thomas and Vice President John Kegel--- voted against the motion made at the October 8 board meeting to approve commencement of work on the asphalt project at Orchard Lane School at the lowest possible bid and to fund an amount not to exceed $270,000 to identify maintenance projects that year.  (The motion passed 4-3)

The asphalt project at Orchard Lane Elementary was one of several facility needs that Superintendent Paul Kreutzer’s administration had identified and presented to the Board as “dire”,  “important” and “immediate”. The pavement at Orchard Lane was described as a safety hazard! The Board was told by administration that at least one student had been injured, wheel chairs were “catching” on the uneven surface/ holes in the pavement and flipping over, there were loose stones, etc.

“Eagle Eye”, an action-packed movie about computer/government surveillance run amok, debuted last weekend