NORMAL - Steps to use technology and personnel to keep schoolchildren safer were approved Wednesday by the Unit 5 school board.

The board approved spending more than $200,000 with Rock Island-based KJWW Engineering Consultants for security and technology help. The company will help improve phone and security camera system among other technology work at current and future schools.

The contract still has to be finalized, Superintendent Gary Niehaus said.

"I'm thrilled we are proceeding with this," said board member Wendy Cannell.

The board also approved a new policy for screening volunteers. In general, volunteers who would be present more than once or have direct contact with students will need to be screened. | Unit 5's volunteer screening policy (PDF)

The cost for screenings by Bushue Human Resources Inc. is $18 per volunteer in the first year of the program, but that later will drop to $10 per volunteer, he said.

In addition to background checks, the new program calls for better training for volunteers and creating a volunteer handbook.

Prairieland Elementary School Principal Tim Arnold, who was on the committee that determined how screening should work, said the concept was well-received by principals, but it was a challenge to determine which volunteers would require screening and which would not.

The board also approved hiring a replacement for the man who has been in charge of school personnel.

Nathaniel Cunningham, a school administrator from Ball-Chatham School District 5, was named assistant superintendent of human resources, starting July 1. He will succeed John Pye, who plans to retire in June 2010.

They will work together in the transition.

In other business, board members were told that an increasing number low-income families presents a challenge at a time when the No Child Left Behind Act requires higher achievement standards each year. Low-income students are one of the groups singled out for measurement under the federal law.

"The hill is getting steeper. The load is getting heavier," said Tom Laxton, education coordinator for the Bloomington-Normal Achievement Matters Task Force.

"Lower achievement on standard tests is not a racial or ethnic thing; it's an economic thing," he said, noting low-income students are the fastest growing group in Bloomington-Normal. "It's a challenge you will face as a board."

Preparing for new schools now under construction, Unit 5 has scheduled public meetings on where children will attend school. They will be 6 to 8 p.m. June 16 at Normal Community High School and the same times on June 17 at Normal Community West High School.