A proposal for Peoria Public Schools to purchase a new walk-through metal detector system for the district’s three traditional high schools failed to gain board of education approval on Tuesday.
Four of the seven board members voted against the four-year subscription with Beck Tech for its Evolv equipment and technology, saying they didn’t receive the additional information they requested at the July 1 meeting.
“It was my understanding that we tabled this at the last meeting, and the reason for tabling was to look at other services that provided the same type of service to our to our district,” board member Martha Ross said after pulling the item from the consent agenda. “I’m not sure that we’ve done ... the due diligence in that.”
The system featuring improved technology was pilot tested at Richwoods High School for four days earlier this year. Director of School Safety Demario Boone told the board the Evolv system would boost the district’s “multi-layered approach” to ensuring safety and eliminating potential threats.
“That’s really important for students’ well-being and academic success, so our principals came up with this,” said Superintendent Sharon Kherat. “They did a lot of work, investigated it. They worked with director Boone, piloted it and said, ‘Hey, this is a game changer.’ So they’ve been nudging us.”
The agreement with Beck called for the district to spend $161,462 for the upcoming school year and $108,776 in each of the three subsequent years. Board member Brenda Wilson said that works out to roughly $32 per student — a cost she considers “a no-brainer.”
Kherat noted that Boone had emailed documentation and comparisons with other threat detection services to the board members Friday afternoon. Board vice president Paris McConnell said that wasn’t sufficient lead time for all the members to review prior to the meeting.
“Respectfully, that’s why we probably should have waited before this came to us, to give us time,” she said.
Larry Ivory and Lynne Costic joined Ross and McConnell in voting against the contract.
“I have complete confidence in our superintendent because of the respect that I have for her, and I’m sure she wouldn’t bring something before this board that was not appropriate from her perspective,” said Ivory.
“But as far as my responsibility goes and my fiduciary responsibility, I’m responsible for my decision. I have to answer to my own decisions that I make, and there’s unwillingness for me to vote for this at this time because I don’t have the other data that some other people have.”
Later in the meeting, the board voted 4-1 with two abstentions to approve a $600,000 contract with Elite Community Outreach for the “Game Changer” behavior program, an increase of $50,000 from the previous year. That came after Christina Rose’s proposed amendment to keep the funding level at $550,000 failed on a 2-5 vote.
Rose went on to question the reasoning behind rejecting the new metal detectors while approving the higher contract with Elite.
“We didn’t seem to have the money for the Evolv system that comes down to $32 a day per student to keep our kids safe,” said Rose. “The three people who approved it have kids in our schools, and the people who didn’t approve it, their own children — not necessarily grandchildren or cousins or whatever — but their children are done at our schools.”
