North added new security camera hardware to the pods, hallways and the football field over winter break. Updates will also be made to the school’s old cameras.

Last school year, District 303 asked North’s administration what technology needs the school had. This prompted North to consider adding new security cameras.

“We put together a pretty comprehensive list of where we could use more supervision, more cameras,” said Michael Tomczak, Dean of Students.

The new cameras were added to the building following approval from the district over the summer. They will cover many areas of the school where administration previously did not have surveillance.

“There’s a number of hallways where we didn’t have coverage,” said Tomczak. “There are more cameras in the PE area, all the pods, a couple different hallways and stairwells. But not in the bathrooms, not ever in the bathrooms.”

While the hardware for the new cameras is already in the building, software still needs to be installed to make the cameras function. Tomczak hopes that the software will be installed this year. Some of the old cameras at North will also receive software improvements.

“In addition to new cameras being added, the software is being updated on the old cameras,” said Tomczak. “Some of our fuzzier and grainier pictures will be a lot more clear.”

According to Tomczak, the new cameras will help administrators keep students safe.

“This is not so that we can watch everybody do everything all the time,” said Tomczak. “The purpose is for safety. We use [the cameras] to keep kids safe, to help monitor behaviors in classes and pods and things like that.”