With school out for the summer, the Anchorage School District is moving to head off a possible rise in vandalism incidents over the next few months.
While ASD officials say no major acts of vandalism have been reported at district facilities so far this season, the district is still taking steps to protect its properties and document any perpetrators.
Hanshew Middle School is the perfect summer camping site, if you ask Steve Williams.
"They have a track over there and they have a Frisbee golf course around it, and I didn't know that until I got here -- totally awesome," Williams said.
In addition to the perks, the chance to park at Hanshew puts Williams -- a retired Alaskan who moved to the Lower 48 three years ago -- and his wife closer to their family every summer.
"It's a good way for us to see our kids and grandkids, and it's pretty inexpensive," Williams said.
Williams is one of many camper hosts who come from places like Wasilla, Kenai, Texas and even Japan to take advantage of the district's summer watch program.
"We just kind of wander around the school and, maybe as it gets later in the day, in the evening and just make sure nothing is going on," Williams said.
Mike Abbott, ASD's chief operations officer, says 46 volunteers are taking part so far in the district's camper host program versus a peak of 60 people in 2012. The program offers offers operators of recreational vehicles free parking, power, water and holding-tank pumps in exchange for keeping an eye out for vandalism at the schools where they're parked."It's down a little bit -- we're continuing to take applicants," Abbott said.
Abbott says the program is intended to alert authorities of vandalism attempts, rather than have volunteers personally intervene.
"We don't ask them to do anything specific," Abbott said. "We ask them to have good phone service, and contact either us if it's during the day or APD if it's at night."
Andre Camara with ASD Operations says camper hosts are an important element in limiting vandalism-related blows to the district's budget.
"(They're) one of the critical pieces to keeping vandalism down; it keeps dollars into critical programs instead of siphoning those budgets for repairing facilities," Camara said. "While ASD doesn't have a line item for vandalism, when something happens at one of our schools, we have to take that money from something else."
Although ASD budget shortfalls are causing significant cutbacks in summer school this year, Abbott denies that having fewer staff at schools after faculty and secretaries depart in July will leave them more vulnerable to vandalism over the summer.
"I don't know that that will result in less supervision of buildings," Abbott said.
According to Abbott, the district is primarily concerned with watching out for vandals during nighttime and weekend hours, which camper host volunteers already do.
District officials reported seeing six to seven vandalism incidents per week in 2011, when five West High School students faced second-degree burglary charges and emergency suspensions after allegedly entering the building, knocking over furniture and discharging a fire extinguisher. Last year, ASD began using state funds to install surveillance cameras across the district.
Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Dani Myren says the department doesn't have specific measures in place to prevent school vandalism. APD's school resource officers, who are based at one of the city's high schools but also serve other schools in the same area, generally become patrol officers for the summer.
ASD is also expanding its surveillance-camera coverage, which currently includes slightly more than half of its buildings. Abbott says the district plans to install cameras at 15 to 20 additional facilities over the summer.
Contact Chris Klint