Opelika schools install sensors to detect and deter vaping
BY ANITA STIEFEL
EDITOR@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
OPELIKA — At its regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 22, the Opelika City Schools Board of Education agreed to the installation of HALO Smart Sensors to detect vaping at the middle and high schools.
“Vaping is a growing issue,” Superintendent Farrell Seymore told the board. “The whole point is to deter, not to catch (students). It also detects other issues and serves as an alert for disturbances.”
Some 46 devices from CRV Surveillance will be installed at Opelika High School and 28 will be installed at Opelika Middle School over the next two months.
Seymore also informed the board of a five-year contract with Centegix for Crisis Alert Solution hardware, services, updates, monitoring and training.
“It’s a remote panic button,” he explained. “It’s for all employees, not just teachers. It can call 911, send out an immediate lockdown and track the location of an emergency.”
Board members agreed the purchase will enhance security at the city’s schools, an issue highlighted recently when a Montgomery teen called OHS earlier this month threatening to “shoot up the school.” Seymore said the current systems in place worked as they are supposed to, however the Centegix system will offer an added level of security.
The board accepted a low bid of just under $1.19 million from E. Cornell Malone of Jackson, Mississippi, for partial roof replacement at the Opelika Learning Center. It also approved a low bid of $654,348 from Standard Roofing of Montgomery for re-roofing of the OHS Performing Arts Center.
The board approved a contract to continue services between Opelika City Schools and Integrea Community Mental Health System, approved recommended personal matters and approved an out of state field trip for students in Mu Alpha Theta honor society to attend Math & Science Education Day at Six Flags.
The board recognized the academic achievement of OHS senior Jared Van Horn, who has been named at 2024-2025 National Merit Semifinalist.
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 10 at 4:30 p.m. at the Central Office.
Education Briefs
Education Briefs
LAGRANGE, Georgia — Will Gray of Opelika, a senior at LaGrange College, starred as the Cowardly Lion in the college’s production of The Wizard of Oz.
NASHVILLE — Matthew Oliver of Opelika and William Wirth of Auburn are among more than 600 student musicians and vocalists at Belmont University who will perform in the beloved annual concert tradition, “Christmas at Belmont Live from Nashville.”
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Elvan Ceyhan of Auburn was recently awarded a Love of Learning Award worth $1,000 from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Love of Learning Awards help fund post-baccalaureate professional development for active Phi Kappa Phi members including graduate or professional studies, doctoral dissertations, continuing education, travel related to teaching and research, career development and more. Ceyhan, professor at Auburn University, will use funds from the award to support his participation in the upcoming conference of the Classification Society in 2025, where he will present his research on “graph-based learning robust to class imbalance” and engage with other leading researchers in the field.
TROY — Troy University announced its Chancellor’s List for Term 1 of the 2024-2025 academic year, which honors full-time undergraduate students registered for 12 semester hours who earn a grade point average of 4.0. Local students who made the list include: Jessica Hill, Amarili Reyes and Eden Simpson of Auburn; Mary Rajan, Karsyn Yountz and Alyanna Wilder of Opelika; Sheresa Patrick of Salem; and Peter Dunne, Megan Regan, Cassandra Gruber and Kayla Rosser of Smiths Station.
