Numerous topics discussed at the NHCS Board of Education meeting

WILMIGNTON, NC (WWAY) — The New Hanover County Board of Education discussed a number of topics during their agenda review meeting Tuesday afternoon.  

There was discussion about the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) funding an additional $800,000 in bonuses for teachers and principals as test scores in the district were amongst the highest in the state.  

Board members also discussed the creation of a committee focusing specifically on bus drivers and transportation needs. 

Although the district is actively working to recruit and retain bus drivers, for now, there just aren’t enough. 

Another topic involved the need to keep sex offenders away from schools. Like during an election when many campuses serve as a voting location when school is also being held. Sometimes, for small elections, schools are not closed and used as a voting location. However, they are working with the Board of Elections to try and isolate the voting locations. To do this, they are looking at using rooms that have an exit and entrance to the exterior. A lot of schools already use the ‘multi-purpose room’ for elections to keep students isolated.  

After closed session, the AI Pilot presentation was given. The global company is Eviden and their product has threat detection, smoke & fire detection, slip & fall detection, intrusion detection, crowd detection, and loitering detection. They partner with Raptor which will send out notifications to staff and can alert local authorities.

The product uses visual detection. For example, if the system is provided with pictures of those who need to be kept off of school campuses it will alert when it sees on.

With weapon detection, it can detect a weapon if it is visually exposed to the camera. If it is hidden, the technology cannot recognize it.

In terms of response time, it takes the AI technology milliseconds to recognize a programmed person or item and sends out an alert in seconds.

The board members asked questions following the presentation and will send a follow up with more questions to the company.