Board also heard presentation on food program, update on proposed budget
The Cinnaminson Board of Education on April 17 approved an agreement that will allow police to access live security camera footage in the event of an emergency.
If there’s a fire, law enforcement officials will be able to look at live footage inside the school to locate the blaze, said Joseph Miller, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction.
Likewise, if there’s a school shooting, police will be able to access the cameras to see where the shooter is in real time.
The district recently upgraded its security camera system — a project that was part of a $40 million referendum approved by residents several years ago, Miller said.
“We are in great condition right now” aside from one or two dead spots, Miller added.
He said representatives from the police department told the district the live footage could be a “tremendously valuable tool” if officers are responding to a dangerous incident.
The agreement approved at the meeting also excludes the video from open records requests for security and privacy reasons.
In other news:
· At the April 17 meeting, the board also heard about the Future Chefs program, a nationwide recipe competition run by Sodexo, the company that manages the district’s food program.
Lisa Friedrich, the district’s food services director, said 10 students from Eleanor Rush Intermediate School submitted ingredients for their recipes. They each received a basket of food with their ingredients and worked for two hours on their meals with an adult’s supervision.
“The recipes each year change,” Friedrich said. “This year it was healthy Asian fusion recipes.”
Fourth-grade student Jenna Kirstein came up with the winning combination with her recipe for spicy tuna rolls, Friedrich said. The competition was judged by school district officials and faculty members.
Friedrich said other submissions included recipes for chicken and veggie egg rolls and salmon fried rice.
Jenna’s recipe also made it to the next round of the national Future Chef competition. Her rolls finished in the top 40 of more than 250 submissions from across the country, according to Friedrich.
Superintendent Stephen Cappello said this was the first year Cinnaminson students participated in the program.
· Cappello said the district’s 2018 preliminary budget has passed its most recent hurdle.
“We were very happy that we got the stamp of approval from the (Burlington) County Superintendent’s Office to advance our budget forward,” Cappello told the Board of Education April 17.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled to be held Tuesday, April 24.
The plan, which was introduced in March, includes a 2 percent tax increase. If it’s adopted, residents with an average assessed home of $232,338 will pay $91.62 more in school taxes.
