Board approves access-control, vape sensors and cameras at Ponchatoula High under small capital outlay

The board approved a Small Capital Outlay purchase to install door access control, restroom vape sensors and cameras at Ponchatoula High School.

"There's a need, of course, for Ponchatoula High School to have a card system in order to unlock doors to ensure safety," Principal Dr. Carmela (identified in the meeting as the school principal) told the board, describing concerns about former employees retaining master keys. She said the system will also be used to track restroom entries and send alerts if doors are left unlocked.

Michael Thornhill of Nortek described the system's features: electrified strikes for doors, badge or phone entry, centrally managed badges and remote monitoring. "This system can be monitored remotely... If this system gets deployed to other schools... it can generate an alert and be sent to that security team," Thornhill said. He also described lockdown functionality that limits badge access while allowing designated staff or emergency responders to enter.

The board motion to accept the Small Capital Outlay purchase and contract with the vendor passed by roll call. Board members discussed that principals at other schools could elect to use similar funds and that deployment districtwide would require separate funding decisions.

Why this matters: the approved system introduces electronic access control and environmental monitoring at a large high school campus and is designed to scale to other schools. The board agreed to make vendor contact information available to principals who want to pursue similar systems with their own capital outlay funds.

The purchase covers about 18 doors at the site, vape sensors in restrooms and cameras; the project is scalable and can be expanded to future buildings as conduit and access permit.