STHS beefing up security

By Kathryn Reed

Skid marks remain at South Tahoe High School where a truck at 1:30 one morning last week did a few doughnuts in the circular entryway.

Cameras captured a truck, believed to be a black Ford, 2008 era, with wide wheels. Enhanced equipment will soon be installed to make sure the next person who vandalizes school property can be definitively identified.

The skid marks will be cleaned up and Aspen Hollow will replace the damaged landscaping. It may not be done by Thursday’s open house.

School officials are not happy with skid marks at STHS. Photos/Kathryn Reed

Much of the short Lake Tahoe Unified School District meeting on Aug. 24 pertained to surveillance equipment. The board unanimously agreed to spend $15,483 on the Career Technical Education building and $23,338 on the Overcrowded Relief Grant classroom wings. The equipment is being bought with Measure G money.

Measure G is the $64.5 million facilities bond voters approved in 2008. Another $30 million has been secured in matching grants from the state.

With millions being spent at the high school, officials want to secure the entire facility. A perimeter fence is not being talked about, but it’s likely a gate on Viking Way will be installed. Already speed bumps have been put in to slow traffic.

“We will do it tastefully,” Superintendent Jim Tarwater told the board.

Motion sensors are going into classrooms.

“If someone breaks in, we’ll know about it,” Steve Morales, facilities director, said.

New gates would look better than the 13th Street entrance to STHS.

At the two-story Stadium View building every teacher has a unique code to gain access to the building and then their classroom. This is an added layer of security in such a large building so staff does not have to worry about someone being in the building who shouldn’t be.

Board member Sue Novasel expressed concern staff may give out the code to students. She pointed out how when her kids were at STHS they ended up with keys to the school.

Morales explained that a record is kept of who enters when so it will be easy to know whose card is being used when.

The other idea brought up to better secure the campus is to have cantilever gates installed between buildings. They would be open during school hours and closed off all other times.