Newport News School Board approves CIP plan, stop-arm cameras for buses – Daily Press

The Newport News School Board Tuesday night unanimously approved a $128 million request for funding capital improvement projects for the upcoming five fiscal years.

The plan, presented to the board in June, calls for replacing Huntington Middle School in fiscal year 2021 at a cost of $34.1 million. Another $2.8 million would cover design costs in FY 2019, a cost that is budgeted for FY 2020 in the current plan the city approved last year.

The current plan covers fiscal years 2018, the current year, through 2022, while the proposal covers 2019 through 2023.

The board has previously requested money to replace Huntington, which was built in 1936 with several additions in the decades following, but it was removed in the final City Council-approved plan.

Other big-ticket items in the request include $42.1 million over the next five years for HVAC replacements, $21.5 million for roof replacements, $10 million for new classroom cabinetry and $10.1 million in bus replacements.

High school teachers from Hampton are training with Hampton Police Division Academies. These teachers are learning about what HPD does in an externship in order to teach their students in a Law and Public Safety Academy coming to Bethel in the fall. The teachers took a short ride on a police boat to learn how their homeland security/marine patrol/dive teams work.

High school teachers from Hampton are training with Hampton Police Division Academies. These teachers are learning about what HPD does in an externship in order to teach their students in a Law and Public Safety Academy coming to Bethel in the fall. The teachers took a short ride on a police boat to learn how their homeland security/marine patrol/dive teams work.

Board members said the plan, if approved in full by the city, would do enough to keep up maintenance of buildings but would not necessarily be enough to truly transform outdated buildings.

"The plan assures that we are replacing buses as we need to, that we're getting HVAC systems replaced as we need to, but in terms of playing out the foundation for the 21st century learner, having attractive classrooms that inspire classrooms, setting those expectations, that we're still not exactly where we need to be," said member Douglas Brown.

The plan now goes on to the city for inclusion in the city's overall capital improvement budget.

The board also voted to install stop-arm cameras on its school buses, provided the city passes an ordinance allowing the school division to issue tickets to drivers who pass a stopped school bus.

During a three-month pilot conducted last year using six buses, 703 violations were captured at 93 different stops, Shay Coates, director of transportation, told the School Board in January. This was the third pilot of stop-arm cameras the division has done, he said.

Part of the move to implement the program requires that, in accordance with state code, the city authorize the division to operate the system.

According to Coates' presentation in January, an outside contracted vendor would install the cameras on 30 percent or 100 percent of the division's bus fleet, depending on which vendor was used. Once they were in operation, the camera would capture an image of the offending driver's license plate with the stop-arm employed, which would be transmitted to the vendor.

The image would be reviewed to determine if it was in violation of the law, and if so, it would be sent to Newport News police to approve the infraction. The vendor would then mail a citation to the offender, who would then either pay the fine or contest it in court.

The board approved the motion in a 5-2 vote, with Brown and Marvin Harris voting against it.

Brown was strongly against the proposal when it was first discussed in January, saying, "I have a lot of grave concerns in terms of the implementation and in terms of having an unelected private corporation collecting fees and fines from citizens." He echoed those concerns on Tuesday before the vote and said he is still "not necessarily in favor" of it but that he hoped it will be "successful."

Hammond can be reached by phone at 757-247-4951.

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Newport News School Board approves CIP plan, stop-arm cameras for buses - Daily Press