The Rancho Santa Fe School District will soon install a new security camera system with the goal of making the R. Roger Rowe School campus safer both during the school day and after school hours. At the Oct. 29 meeting, the board approved the cost of $171,797 for the Verkada security cameras, which will cover the campus for the next 10 years.

The district’s current security cameras are eight to 10 years old and nearing the end of their useful life, according to Jamil Soltani, the district’s chief technology officer. Soltani proposed the new Verkada system — the cameras are used locally at Cathedral Catholic High School, The Bishop’s School, the city of Encinitas and 10 San Diego City libraries.

Soltani said it offers much clearer image quality and a better opportunity for real-time threat detection, with preemptive alerts and notifications that can shorten incident response. The cameras can monitor a person of interest with facial recognition software as well as license plate recognition capability.

The new cameras will be installed in 55 existing locations on campus, plus another eight new cameras to cover blind spots.

“I look forward to leveraging this cutting-edge technology to improve our ability to keep students safe while also giving us the opportunity to work more efficiently,” Soltani said.