School board seeks cameras to solve vandalism issue in vacant school buildings

NATCHEZ — When students moved out of the former Robert Lewis Middle and Joseph Frazier Elementary schools, vandals moved in.

Superintendent Zandra McDonald-Green addressed the vandalism issue at the schools during Tuesday’s meeting of the Natchez-Adams School District Board of Trustees.

The schools have been empty for two years starting when the district consolidated its high school and middle schools on adjacent campuses at the old and new high school buildings.

Starting July 29, students of the same grade level will be combined at the same school buildings, a move made necessary by a shrinking student population and shortage of certified teachers.

Green said Tuesday that there have been vandalism problems at the empty schools since the consolidation.

The school security supervisor, “Officer (Melvin) Davis was on the coast at a conference when I had to call him and say that law enforcement had to go through our property,” Green said. “We’re continuously working to address that.”

Green added officials reached out to project NOLA, which provides discounted surveillance cameras with non-profit funds that are monitored in real-time by police officers.

Green said she has been working with Tim Byrd, the District’s Business and Finance Manager, to see if the purchase of cameras could be worked into the budget and the cameras be placed at those two schools.

“As we know (the schools) have historical value and we don’t want to see them be destroyed,” Green said.

She added that some of those behind the vandalism problem, juveniles, were already caught.

Juvenile Court Judge Walt Brown is working with the school district by ordering the juveniles to community service hours to clean up the properties as restitution, Green said.

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