Tempe board hears safety update; staff proposes $3.5 million camera upgrade and visitor-management pilots
Summary
District safety staff proposed a districtwide camera and visitor-management upgrade — with pilot sites, vendor checks of offender databases and an estimated cost of about $3.5 million — and discussed lobby security, reunification features and possible funding from recently passed bond dollars.
Mister Steven Carbajal presented a school-safety update to the Tempe School District Governing Board focused on emergency preparedness, camera expansion and visitor-management systems. Carbajal framed the work as preserving a culture of kindness while strengthening security and said the district is exploring a cloud-based 4K camera platform to improve video quality, retrieval speed and scalability.
Carbajal described potential benefits: faster evidence retrieval, cloud storage, scalable architecture and user-friendly interfaces for staff. He said the district is considering pilots at selected sites (Connolly and Curry were discussed as possible pilot locations) and estimated a full districtwide upgrade, including all sites and professional development locations, at roughly $3,500,000. The presentation identified lobby security upgrades as variable by site, with costs per site ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars up to about $1,000,000 depending on scope.
Visitor management features under consideration include photo-matching to driver's licenses on first entry, linked custody and restriction alerts via the student information system (Synergy), reunification support and vendor background checks that may include offender databases and national checks. Carbajal said the district is piloting visitor management and lobby-security approaches before making larger purchases.
Board members raised privacy and operational questions: whether photo checks are a one-time process or require advance registration, how the system would work for large events (QR codes and pre-registration were suggested), and whether the district planned metal detectors. Carbajal said metal detectors are part of a broader safety conversation but have not been vetted through vendors and are not a current purchase plan.
Carbajal and a board member recounted an out-of-district video showing an after-hours visitor who reportedly carried a knife and expressed intent to harm; staff said that example highlighted the limits of current paper sign-in processes. Another board member clarified that proposed camera and visitor-management work would be paid with bond dollars, not M&O operating funds.
Whathappens next: Staff said they will continue vendor vetting and pilot testing and return with more detailed site-level cost estimates and vendor recommendations for the board to consider before committing funds.
