Money is the only major hurdle standing between Tina Bannon and the cameras on school buses she spent the last month pushing to install.
Undeterred, the Crestview mother is planning fundraisers, including a beauty pageant, to help overcome the gap.
“I don’t want this to just be the school district,” Bannon said. “I want it to be the parents, too.”
Earlier this month, Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry Ashley joined the School Board in pledging money for the project. Right now, the district has set aside about $42,000 and Ashley anticipates he’ll be able to contribute between $25,000 and $40,000.
Estimates indicate it will cost about $1,800 per bus to install three cameras on the 83 vehicles without them.
But money isn’t the only factor left to deal with, according to Cindy Frakes, the vice chairwoman of the School Board. School officials are also looking at privacy issues, she said.
“This is going to take some policy initiations,” said Frakes, who supported Bannon’s suggestion from the get-go.
Bannon said she knows the cameras might not be installed immediately, so she’s also tackling the bus safety issue on another front. After the holidays, she hopes to meet with school district officials to find out what it will take to get volunteer monitors on all the buses.
She won’t stop until the issue is fully resolved because she wants to ensure her daughter doesn’t have any more bad experiences on her school bus.
“I did this so my child knows when she can’t fight, I will,” Bannon said.