The majority of the Altoona Area School District’s nearly 300 security cameras will soon receive “much-needed” upgrades that will allow school officials to monitor live video surveillance remotely, Superintendent Bryce Cossitor said of district technology.

At a regular meeting Tuesday, Altoona Area School Board members unanimously approved a $1,349,415 proposal from Watkins Security LLC of Johnstown to install and upgrade security cameras throughout the district. The payment will be made to the capital reserve fund, according to the agenda of the meeting.

The upgrade will consolidate all security cameras in each of the district’s buildings under one system, which includes new hardware, software and capabilities allowing the system to be accessed remotely via tablets or mobile phones, the superintendent said Brad Hatch.

With the new system in place, Hatch said school officials will be able to search for a specific image and have the system show each camera any footage of the person or image in question.

“If you search for someone wearing a red jacket, then it will show anywhere someone with a red jacket is moving on a camera,” Hatch said, adding that the district’s No. 1 priority is the safety of its students , its staff and its teachers. members.

“When they come in, we want to make sure they’re safe,” Hatch said, noting the upgrade will also improve safety and security measures at the District’s athletic facilities, like Mansion Park. Spectators there are also under constant surveillance, he said.

Cossitor said the majority of cameras in the district are “repurposed” analog cameras that are nearly 10 years old. All cameras in the district are being upgraded to digital cameras with new features – motion sensor activation and facial recognition – with the exception of the high school building, where digital cameras are already in place, Cossitor said.

“This is a much-needed upgrade that will give us a consistent platform that we can use across the district,” Cossitor said. “It was time to develop a coherent system that we could control for security reasons. »

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.