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District moves to clarify visitor sign-in, camera use and recording rules in school‑safety policy updates
Summary
The Santa Monica‑Malibu Unified School District board reviewed revisions to board policies and administrative regulations that tighten visitor sign‑in requirements, expand limited interior camera use, and clarify how and when recordings and visitor logs are retained and shared.
The Santa Monica‑Malibu Unified School District Board of Education on Feb. 5 reviewed proposed updates to board policy and administrative regulations governing campus safety, visitor registration, recording and surveillance.
Kerry Upton, the districtchief operations officer, said the revisions require visitors to sign in and clarify exceptions for those without photo identification, and add a reporting step if a registered offender requests entry. "We do have to make it much more explicit... they do have to sign in," Upton said, explaining the district will make sign-in requirements clearer on site signage and through registration software.
The updates also address retention of visitor logs after the district moves from the Raptor system to a new management system that can store records indefinitely. Upton said the software permits indefinite retention but the district will align policy with California's records-retention schedule: "The new system ... allows for a management and keeping of those logs. I don't know what the time period is for that," he said, adding the board will consider retention policy details.
The policy changes incorporate recent state guidance on behavioral threat assessment and include facility safety improvements such as retrofitting doors with interior locking hardware. Upton described expanded use of interior cameras for incident response and perimeter security: "We do not have someone, anyone sitting watching cameras all day observing," he said, adding that administrators and authorized campus security personnel would access live footage when responding to an incident.
Board members asked staff to draft clarifying language in the administrative regulation (AR) that explains typical circumstances for camera activation, who may view footage, and how requests for recordings are handled. Upton said footage with students in view generally will not be released; access to recordings will follow legal requirements and requests will be handled through police request, subpoena or public-records processes.
The board will consider the policy changes for action on Feb. 19; administrative regulations will return as information at the same meeting with additional clarifications and cross-references to the districtpublic-records AR.
