INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — More than 60 Indian River County School District buses will be outfitted with new cameras, the School Board decided Tuesday night.
With a unanimous 5-0 vote, the School Board approved allocating nearly $116,000 for a four-camera system on each of the District’s regular buses. The spare school buses will not receive cameras as they are being phased out of the fleet.
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources and Risk Management Bill Fritz told the School Board that some of the buses with cameras date back to the “VHS era” and have been inconsistent in their ability.
Fritz said other buses simply are not equipped with cameras.
“They are an essential safety feature,” Fritz told the School Board, explaining that they help officials “get to the truth” when questions of safety or behavior are raised.
The School Board approved the contract with AngelTrack Cameras, which will provide four cameras per bus, one mounted at the front, one at the back, and one on each side, giving authorities a nearly full view of the bus.
Fritz said the cameras would also be equipped with SIM cards as backup for data storage. He explained that bus movements have been known to dislodge the memory cards from cameras rendering them unusable.
School Board member Matt McCain said he fully supports the cameras, “This is a safety concern.”
He asked if laws now require the School District to have cameras on buses.
“It’s not required by the state but it’s good practice,” Fritz replied.
McCain also asked if the recently purchased buses are already equipped with cameras, to which Fritz affirmed.
Newly appointed and seated School Board member Dale Simchick asked about the vandal-proof lockboxes the cameras are equipped with and wondered who has access to the boxes.
Fritz told her the School District’s driver trainers are the ones with access – not the bus drivers and not those affiliated with the drivers’ union.