LISBON

There will soon be more security cameras in Lisbon’s school.

The school committee has approved more than $27,000 to upgrade and replace some security cameras in the high school, the final installment in a five-year update plan.

“It’s long been a part of our capital improvement plan for a while,” said Superintendent Richard Green. “The high school is the last one to be updated, we started with the elementary.”

In 2017, Lisbon Community School saw updates and new security cameras installed.

The new technology will provide additional views inside and outside of the building.

Looking ahead, an additional school resource officer — a frequent topic of discussion at committee meetings — is not currently included in the proposed budget for next year. For the one officer working in that capacity right now, the school pays 75 percent of the cost, while the police department picks up the remainder.

Based on conversations with Police Chief Marc Hagan, it would cost $84,707 for an additional officer with necessary experience; he said it wasn’t practical to put an officer with no experience in the role.

In addition, as Hagan told the council Tuesday, the department would like to add a patrol officer to its ranks. He said that would fill his greatest need.

“Right now with six patrol officers we are running at bare minimum coverage,” Hagan said. “If we had another officer, we get to the point where we have two officers per shift, it knocks off a safety issue we would have.”

An alternate option raised in discussions between Green and Hagan — instead of having a dedicated officer — would be to provide office space for a patrol officer within the school. That would allow a spot for patrol officers to file reports and add an increased police presence within the school. Whether that will happen has not been determined.

chris@timesrecord.com