District to pilot SmartPass digital hall‑pass at high school; pilot cost $16,003.93

The Education and Pupil Services Committee authorized staff to seek board permission to pilot SmartPass, a digital hall‑pass platform, at the high school from February through June at a pilot cost of $16,003.93 and said a full academic‑year implementation across all three secondary schools would cost about $32,000 pending legal review and board approval.

District presenters said the pilot follows installation of a weapons detection system at secondary schools and aims to provide real‑time information to hall monitors, streamline student movement, and reduce classroom disruptions. Dan Kitchen, a district staff member who presented the proposal, said SmartPass “is a digital hall pass system and allow our students and staff to create and request hall passes with their district owned devices.” He told the committee the district reviewed three products and selected SmartPass for its real‑time tracking and compatibility with eSchool and existing hardware.

Presenters said SmartPass integrates with the district's ClassLink launchpad, works on iPads, laptops and Chromebooks, and includes administrative dashboards and reporting tools. Training is included in the pilot price via prerecorded content in “SmartPass Academy” and live Zoom sessions; vendors will provide training throughout the contract term. The stated pilot cost covers February–June; presenters said a full year for all three secondary schools would run about $32,000.

Committee members asked how the system tracks students who do not carry devices between class and the hall. Presenters explained teachers can create passes on a student's behalf in class and hall monitors will use iPad dashboards that display a photo and pass destination so monitors can confirm whether a student is authorized to be in a particular hallway. One committee member asked how hall monitors would decide to stop a student and whether that could lead to negative interactions; presenters said the dashboard is intended to give monitors clearer information about who should be in a hallway and limit unnecessary confrontations.

Committee members also asked who sets default pass durations; presenters said there are default values set by administration that teachers can override and that different pass types (for example, counselor versus bathroom) can have different default durations. Presenters noted the pilot is contingent on a legal review of the contract agreement and said the initial pilot focus will be high school hallway monitors to test the real‑time tracking feature.

The committee indicated it was comfortable moving the pilot forward to the February board meeting for formal action. No formal contract decision was made at the committee meeting; the full board must approve any contract before system rollout.