School board OKs security cameras

BURBANK — The Burbank Unified School District Board approved the installation of security camera systems at Burbank and John Burroughs high schools, citing the need to prevent campus theft and vandalism and to protect high-priced modernization projects.

“They’ve given me the go to go ahead and bid this and ask for approval,” said Craig Jellison, the district’s chief facilities officer.

Trustees approved the projects, including any additions for surveillance, on Jan. 18.

An outside consultant will walk the grounds of Burbank and Burroughs to give estimates on costs of installing the digital- camera security systems.

Once trustees approve a contractor to do the work, each campus will receive 32 cameras to be installed in public places on school grounds at an estimated cost of $132,092 for both sites together.

Money for the two projects will be taken from the $8.8 million left in the district’s modernization budget.

Costs may be more than estimated due to the board’s request to include a new set of cameras to be placed over pending field-improvement projects at the high schools, Jellison said.

The major reason for installing camera systems is to protect millions of dollars of modernization work on the campuses, Burroughs Principal Emilio Urioste said.

“Cameras serve two things,” Urioste said. “No. 1, it’s a deterrence. And No. 2, if something occurs then you have a greater opportunity to identify who the perpetrator was.”

High school principals and district officials hope the cameras will deter vandalism and theft, Urioste said.

The cameras will be on a Web-based system, making their content accessible to police and fire stations in Burbank at all times.

During the day, the cameras will show images in color and they will switch to infrared images at night.

But the surveillance will not extend into areas of the campuses considered private spaces, Urioste said. Classrooms, gym rooms and bathrooms will be off limits to the lenses and the locations will remain unknown to the students.

“They are in hallways,” he said. “They are in the quad area. They are in areas of public access.”

But even though the cameras will be installed in places the district considers to be public, Associated Student Body President at Burbank High School Melissa Medina, said she feels uncomfortable at the prospect of cameras in the hallways at school.

“If it’s out in the quad or it’s out in the hallways, for me that’s unnecessary and it’s an invasion of privacy,” Medina, 18, said. “The only place that I would feel comfortable having them would be the parking lot itself and some of the areas that the sports play.”

Burbank High principal Bruce Osgood insisted that the cameras were not to spy on students but to prevent crime on campus and the system would likely come in most handy outside of school hours.

“During school hours, although the cameras will be running, that’s not really when we have problems,” Osgood said.

He cited the weekends and nighttimes as prime time for vandals and looters who come on campus.

Even though the two schools have not experienced many instances of either crime, the cameras would still be a necessary asset to the campus security system, said Tom Steele, assistant principal of discipline at Burroughs.

“It seems about once a couple of years we get hit with some type of vandalism,” Steele said. “It’s not a frequent, ongoing problem though. It’s more preventative than anything else.”

QUESTION

What do you think of security cameras in public spaces on campus? (See story on Page A5) E-mail your responses to burbankleader@latimes.com; mail them to the Burbank Leader, 111 W. Wilson Ave., Glendale, CA 91203. Please spell your name and include your address and phone number for verification purposes only.