The state Board of Education approved a contract Thursday for a $14 million school safety platform that was part of an $89 million package of information technology funded by federal COVID-19 relief funds.
The unanimous vote came at the board’s regularly-scheduled February meeting.
The school safety platform and the other projects in the package will be paid for with federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds which were mostly disbursed to school districts for COVID-related expenses such as distance learning.
The contract for nSide Inc. of Florence, Alabama will be for $14 million for nearly three years (two years and seven months). The company will create 360-degree navigable virtual walkthroughs for all public schools. In addition, the company will provide five surveillance cameras apiece for 1,028 schools that can detect crowd congestion and alert district personnel and one surveillance camera for each school district office.
Paula Vanderford, the MDE’s chief accountability officer, told the board that districts could opt-in to having both the school safety plan provided by nSide and the video surveillance cameras (at no cost) or just the safety plan. She also said districts could also opt in to the plan and have their existing cameras added to the nSide platform.
Two other contracts with ESSER funds were also approved by the board Thursday. They include:
Major Clarity Inc. of Richmond, Virginia received a $1.4 million contract for college and career readiness
platform with an e-transcript feature.
R & A Solutions Inc. of Franklin, Tennessee received a $5.1 million contract to create a cloud-based educator workforce information system.
The IT projects are funded from a 9.5 percent holdback by the MDE from $2.5 billion in ESSER funds sent to the state. MDE will also spend $14.6 million for the replacement of the Mississippi Student Information System and $49.5 million in learning aids for students.
MDE told the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services Board in September that the school safety platform would assist with crisis management plans and response to crises and was essential to the agency’s response to the pandemic. The MDE said that the system would allow districts to manage layers of cameras and other sensors at schools without offering any specifics.
The approval means the MDE will meet federal deadlines to spend the COVID-19 relief funds. The department also must show federal officials that the funds are obligated through September 30, 2023 (first batch) and September 30, 2024 (second batch), which requires an extended contract.
At its December meeting, the state Board of Education approved a contract with World Wide Technology of St. Louis, Missouri to build a new Mississippi Student Information System (MSIS) to replace the existing system, which is now nearly 21 years old. The contract amount is for $10.79 million, with the contract extending from December 16, 2021 to September 30, 2024.
The Board of Education also approved in December a $1.8 million, three-year contract for TempStaff LLC. to staff a call center that would respond to calls from prospective and licensed educators regarding licensure requirements.
In December, the state Public Procurement Review Board (PPRB) gave MDE an exemption to the regulatory one-year limitation on emergency contracts because the Tempstaff contract is for two years and nine months. The PRRB approved the exemption on December 3, despite having a protest on the contract.
