Schools preparing for year with more security

With the first day of school just around the corner, the Portales and Clovis school districts have been boosting security measures in response to concerns of students, parents and school employees.

Portales is implementing a new system called Rave Panic. This consists of an app that all teachers and administrators will have access to on their phones. It allows them in emergencies to dispatch law enforcement to their location with the push of a button.

"It's for fire, ambulance, and all they have to do is push the button," Johnnie Cain, the superintendent of Portales Schools said.

Cain said the schools facilitate two active shooter drills during the year, one in the fall and one in the spring. The district plans to update its security cameras, as well as add some new ones to its system.

"We're waiting for the new legislative appropriation for safety to come out. And when that comes out, we're probably going to do some more fencing," Cain said. "We're looking at maybe bulletproofing the windows and stuff like that as well. We're just kind of waiting for that money to come."

Cain said the district is ready for any potential threats that may come through social media platforms. "We've had several threats this past year, but as soon as we got the threat, we normally knew where it was coming from, or shortly thereafter," he said. The district works closely with law enforcement, and Cain said that if a threat did come in, they would immediately have the police or sheriff's office involved.

The Clovis Municipal School district is in the middle of a multimillion-dollar upgrade to its security technology network, adding more security cameras, among other things.

"We've added some artificial intelligence our camera system management," Jay Brady, the deputy superintendent of operations, technology and athletics, said. "We've added another 500 plus cameras to our surveillance system,".

Brady said Clovis was also waiting for funding to come from the legislature.

"Part of our bond, we put fencing up at Gattis, and that's a sizable and costly project," he said. "We're working on fencing around the high school for practice facilities, as well as security, and we continue to work on camera coverage."

The AI security camera system, called ZeroEyes, has been up and running since earlier this year. "It directly ties to our first responders so that if it's recognized, that system will alert them. That decreases their response time," Brady said. The district also has placed security guards at all the secondary campuses.

Brady said the district is also looking into installing bulletproof film on windows once appropriations arrive. For major events, people can expect to walk through detectors for an added level of security.

"We're doing what we can to keep the public safe and our kids safe," Brady said.