Fort Wayne board approves bus camera contract, renews employee clinics and SRO agreement
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Summary
The Fort Wayne Community Schools board on March 23 approved a $923,379.32 five-year bus surveillance contract to replace systems on 194 buses, renewed employee-clinic agreements totaling about $835,417.29, adopted a six-year K–12 art curriculum, accepted roughly $11.78 million in gifts and donations, and approved a $539,870.16 SRO agreement with the Fort Wayne Police Department.
The Fort Wayne Community Schools Board of School Trustees on March 23 approved multiple contracts and routine reports designed to expand student and staff supports and update safety equipment.
The board voted to authorize a five-year agreement with IVS Inc., doing business as AngelTrax, for $923,379.32 to replace bus surveillance systems on 194 buses. District transportation staff said the new system will provide HD cameras, onboard recorders, hosted server storage, online management software and wireless cellular devices that allow live, real-time access from dispatch. "One of the main ones is that it'd be wireless so it's live...my dispatch could be able to pull that up," a transportation staff member told the board, explaining how live access could help in medical emergencies or other incidents.
Why it matters: District officials said the wireless feature will reduce the time required to retrieve footage compared with the current system, and funding for the contract will come from the school safety operations referendum fund and a secured school safety grant.
Board members also approved renewals of employee clinic and wellness agreements. The district approved a renewal with Brookview Health Systems for $767,128.29 covering 06/01/2026–05/31/2027 and a renewal with Parkview Employer Solutions for shared clinics for $68,289 covering 12/01/2026–11/30/2027. Maria Norman, who presented the item, said FWCS is self-insured and the clinics reduce overall prescription and medical expenses; she said "we're currently about 43% of those that are insured are utilizing our clinics."
Other fiscal and program approvals included acceptance of a report of extracurricular equipment purchases for 2025 and audited extracurricular account reports for the first semester of 2025–26. Kim Sabote, the district internal auditor, told the board the reports are on file in the business office; the board accepted the reports by voice vote.
The board ratified a yearly listing of gifts, grants and donations submitted by unit heads. Board members heard a district summary that the total donations for the period were about $11,780,000.
Curriculum and professional learning: The board approved a six-year adoption of The Art of Education University resources for K–12 visual arts at a cost of $455,760, funded from the textbook rental fund. The district said the program provides standards-aligned curricular materials and professional learning, and staff noted onboarding support and usage reporting to track teacher engagement.
School safety partnership: The board approved an agreement with the Fort Wayne Police Department to continue the School Resource Officer program for 2026 at $539,870.16. The agreement assigns full-time certified SROs to eight schools; district security director Mike Manuel explained FWCS will pay base salary for the days worked while the city covers benefits. Manuel also described additional coverage at middle schools through a separate "sub security" line of security staff.
What’s next: All listed motions were approved by voice vote. District officials said the bus system is scheduled to be ready for fall deployment, training is included in vendor onboarding, and clinics and SRO staffing will proceed under the terms authorized by the board.
