PRC School Board approves new camera security system for district

Superintendent Alan Lumpkin addresses the Board during the meeting.

At last night’s meeting of the Pearl River County Board of Trustees, the Board approved to move forward with the purchase of a new camera security system.

Prior to the Board approving the purchase, the Board had some questions for Superintendent Alan Lumpkin and Director of Finance, T.J. Burleson.

In responding to Board President Jeremy Weir’s question on what does this involve, Superintendent Alan Lumpkin explained why the district needed a new system.

“Over the years, we have been band aiding and replacing cameras across all of our schools which have different brands. Each campus had their own system so to speak. We had a facility audit performed on all of the camera systems and the recommendation was to replace these systems with one system across all the schools. Not only did we do that by taking care of the problem we had, we also increased our surveillance by adding cameras in places where we needed them. This problem was brought to us by our principals. School safety and surveillance was a priority for them and that’s why we got the bids and brought this to your attention, “ Lumpkin stated.

Lumpkin also told the board that they would have to a similar problem next for the district's school buses.

Synergetics was the lowest bid of three bids received with a bid of $175,833.75 for approximately 170 cameras according Burleson. The Board had concerns about making a purchase of this size due to what could be revenue shortfalls.

Board member Jeff Jones asked where this money would be coming from and Lumpkin said it would have to be an amendment to the budget and would come from the fund balance. Lumpkin noted the fund balance was at $4.4 million, up from $4.1 last year.

Mr. Weir asked Mr. Burleson on the current status of incoming revenue?

Burleson responded, “So far, so good. But you really can’t tell as far as ad valorem goes until January or February when a big chunk of money comes in. But, we are on target with collections, but you never know what the Governor’s going to do in the middle of the year, I can’t project that.”

Burleson also told the board that if they would like, this purchase can be spread out in payments over three years, but that would incur interest and send the cost to around $200,000.00.

After more deliberation and questions and answer with Superintendent Lumpkin and Finance Director Burleson, the Board unanimously approved the purchase as one payment.