Daily Mining Gazette File photo The Hancock School Board has collaborated with the Houghton County Sheriff’s Department to meet Emergency Response Obligations. Additional upgrades to the security system are ongoing.

HANCOCK — Superintendent Chris Salani updated the School Board on the progress of the Critical Incident Mapping component of the school’s security program.

Salani said thanks go to School Board Trustee Charlie Klein, who helped facilitate the project through that Sheriff’s Department, the district now has new maps of the schools. Klein is also Detective-Lieutenant of the Houghton County Sheriff’s Department,

A copy of the maps will be retained in the high school for the district. There will be copies with the Hancock City Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office.

“This is part of our Emergency Response obligations that we have this information available and on file, both here and in the district, as well,” Salani said.

Salani said it is a big step forward. Other districts did it last year, and spent thousands of dollars to accomplish it, he said, but thanks to the efforts of Klein and the Sheriff’s Department, it was accomplished at no cost to the Hancock Schools.

At the same time, Hancock School Resource Officer Darron Olsen has been working with vendors on AI software, particularly weapon detection software.

Salani’s staff has explored price quotes from three different companies, but they came in far higher than what was anticipated. Salani said he is working with the CCISD Regional Educational Media Center (REMC) for alternatives.

“We are having REMC explore another potential option through our digital watch dog, Current Surveillance System, our video surveillance,” Salani said, “so, we’re going to hopefully get some pricing that will be effective there.”

Salani said he also submitted a grant request that will help to cover some of the types of software costs, which he anticipates realizing around the end of January or the beginning of February.

Additionally, Olsen and Salani recently met with Michigan Tech’s Public Safety and Polic Services’ Reid DeVoge to review and operate a software program there called ReadyOp, which is both a PC and mobile platform that can be use for emergency communications. DeVoge is the Michigan Tech’s deputy director and Chief of Police

ReadyOP is a secure website-based platform to support planning, response, command, and communications for single agencies and unified commands. It is used for local, statewide and nationwide operations, multi-agency response, coordination and communications.

“The other piece about this that’s really kind of nice,” Salani said, “is apparently, it would be free to us. It’s gone through Houghton County and Michigan Tech is utilizing it for free, and so this could be another one of those pieces that would supplement our support security operations and provide a mobil platform that would be fingertip ready for information we would want communicated out to the staff and stakeholders, and again another potential way of working with emergency management.”

Salani said he plans to have further updates to present to the Board at its January, 2024 meeting.