Gilroy – Luigi Aprea Elementary School does not have a security system on its campus, and the school district doesn’t plan on installing one any time soon – despite a lockdown Thursday that may have involved a man with a gun on campus.
Like all other elementary schools in the district, Luigi Aprea’s security is confined to a fence surrounding the campus. Currently, the only schools in the district equipped with security systems are Gilroy High School and Ascencion Solorsano Middle School, said Charlie Van Meter, the district’s director of facilities and maintenance operations.
Security systems will be installed at South Valley and Brownell middle schools this summer, but there has been no discussion about plans for systems in the district’s existing elementary schools, said Superintendent Edwin Diaz. There are plans, however, to install systems at the new Eliot Elementary School, Christopher High School and the replacement school for Las Animas Elementary School.
“Anytime you have a situation like (the lockdown at Luigi Aprea), there will be a tendency to bring up those types of security measures,” Diaz said. “But I think it’s too early to make any decisions about anything at this point. We’ll need some time before we can have any discussions.”
Diaz, who was in Sacramento attending a state budget conference at the time of the lockdown, said district staff was debriefed Thursday afternoon and will present the results to the school board.
“The board will meet to review those notes, and if there’s anything we need to do to respond, we will do that,” Diaz said.
Trustee Tom Bundros said the possibility of introducing security cameras to the district’s elementary schools is something the board has discussed in general terms in the past, but might look at the issue a bit closer now.
“It’s something that’s certainly on the table,” he said. “We have to see how it fits with all of our other priorities.”
Depending on their complexity and capabilities, security systems can cost anywhere from $40,000 to millions of dollars, Van Meter said. Systems for smaller campuses are less expensive. Ascencion Solorsano’s system cost about $69,000, Van Meter said.
The high school’s system, costing between $100,000 and $150,000, is state-of-the-art and includes cameras, intrusion alarms and outside monitoring. The system was installed last summer and had been approved by the board years before, but it was not in place in time to assist with a prank call in May that threatened a teacher’s life and led to a three-hour lockdown.
Trustee Rhoda Bress said she was taken aback when she heard news of the incident at Luigi Aprea.
“I was shocked. It’s frightening to know that people are walking around with weapons,” she said. “I was shaken, like I was with what happened at the high school. I can relate to this. I think a lot was learned from the previous incident.”
