CALABASAS : School Panel to Discuss Increasing Security

The Las Virgenes school board tonight will discuss whether to take steps to increase on-campus security that could cost the district nearly $100,000.

The security measures that will be considered by the board include the purchase of walkie-talkies for $12,000, conflict-resolution training for lunchtime monitors for $2,500, programs to promote student awareness, the hiring of campus security guards at $3,600 to $7,200 and fences around schools for $25,000-70,000.

Other options whose costs are not known at this time are surveillance cameras and more lights for school parking lots and other areas. Including these unknown costs, the total price tag for the measures is estimated to be just under $100,000, Assistant Supt. Donald Zimring said, for a school district whose annual budget is $40 million.

“For a district our size that’s quite expensive,” he said. “I don’t anticipate that the board will adopt all of those recommendations.”

So far, he said, there seems to be support for the purchase of two-way radios and for training for both supervisors and students.

“The issue of youngsters not being wise to the ways of the world is a major one,” he said.

Many principals and students are unenthusiastic about the prospect of putting up fences, saying they interfere with the feeling of openness and mar the overall appearance of the school, Zimring said.

The district is considering implementing the increased security measures after an incident in Simi Valley in which a student was stabbed and another incident in Thousand Oaks in which a gun was fired into a crowd, injuring three Westlake High School students.