Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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The Clark County School District has spent another $13.3 million on emergency security upgrades at a number of high schools.
Like the upgrades announced last month at Eldorado and Clark high schools — which cost about $26.3 million and $100,000, respectively — the projects completed over the summer at 11 other high schools included more surveillance cameras, single points of entry and added perimeter fencing.
The upgrades were made at Canyon Springs, Cheyenne, Cimarron-Memorial, Desert Oasis, Desert Pines, Foothill, Legacy, Mojave, Rancho, Sierra Vista and Sunrise Mountain.
The district did not respond to a request for further details about the latest work, which ranged in cost from about $861,000 to $1.6 million per campus.
The district previously declined to release details about the upgrades at Clark or Eldorado.
“While we would like to disclose security details so that our parents, students and staff members feel more assured, doing so would allow those who intend to cause harm an advantage,” the district said at the time.
Combined, the latest upgrades cost about half as much as the upgrades at just Eldorado, where a 16-year-old boy allegedly sexually assaulted and attempted to kill a teacher in a classroom after school in April.
It was the lowlight of a year marred by record campus violence, and happened not long after district officials pledged to crack down on offenders and review physical security measures in the wake of a string of hard lockdowns, brawls and beatings around the district.
District officials said they would prioritize high schools, then middle and elementary schools.
The latest upgrades are on the agenda for Thursday’s School Board meeting as informational items.
They were made under a state law that allows local governmental entities to fast-track major expenditures in the event of a health and safety emergency without undergoing the usual contract approvals.
When the Eldorado and Clark items were on the July 14 board agenda as informational items, they received neither votes nor discussion.
