ATLANTA—Infrastructure consultant AECOM will be leading a program management contract for the DeKalb County School District in Georgia as part of its Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST) VI Capital Improvement Program. AECOM will be working with Corporate Environmental Risk Management (CERM), a certified minority-owned engineering and program management firm. The two companies have performed previous joint work for the district for over a decade.

Aspects of the work entail renovations, additions as well as ground-up work for the district. The companies will also be updating the technology throughout the district buildings as well as improving equipment. Together, CERM and AECOM will be undertaking scheduling, design standards review, contract administration and risk management.

“We’ve been honored to serve as DeKalb County School District’s program manager for 10 years and look forward to continuing to perform to a high level of technical excellence in this role,” Bane Gaiser, chief executive of AECOM’s U.S. East and Latin America region, said in a recent statement. “We’re especially proud to partner with CERM, capitalizing on the success and momentum from our previous work together—and leveraging our existing experience, knowledge of district processes, and alignment with various public and project stakeholders throughout the Atlanta region to together deliver equity, quality, and value across this program.”

Added Chris McDermott, senior vice president and lead of AECOM’s U.S. East and Latin America Program and project management business: “Through our efforts managing assignments for hundreds of K-12 school programs across the country, we’ve developed proven approaches focused on collaboration, communication, and cost-consciousness. These best practices help guide our outcome-driven solutions that prioritize our clients’ overall program goals while optimizing capital investments.

“We’re pleased to bring this depth of experience to support the DeKalb County School District’s vision of inspiring a community of learners to achieve educational excellence.”

The DeKalb County School District, the third-largest in all of Georgia, services 93,000 students. In addition to physical construction work, its Capital Improvement Program prioritizes such modern concepts as diversity and inclusion, facility equity, and sustainable innovations.

AECOM, a Fortune 500 firm, reports revenue of $13.3 billion in fiscal year 2021 alone.

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ATLANTA — As students begin to head back to school, safety and security concerns are among some school district officials’ top growing priorities and concerns across the Atlanta Metro area.

The Fulton County school district, for example, is investing in Avigilon, a high-tech video surveillance system that will be installed in over 105 public school buildings at a cost of $4.6 million, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“The basic idea is to have one place to collaborate on emergency situations,” said Paul Hildreth, safety coordinator for Fulton County Schools, to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Safety comes in all forms — weather advisories, traffic alerts, as well as criminal activity.”

In addition to adding video surveillance, emergency alert systems, and more police and safety officers in Atlanta Metro school districts, recent construction projects like those in DeKalb County have incorporated several safety and security features across the district.

Fulton County is reportedly the fourth-largest school district in the state and has the funds for Avigilon’s elaborate system, but safety is an expense for all Metro school districts regardless of size. Some districts, like Gwinnett, Clayton and Henry counties, added more school police officers. Others like DeKalb County, which is Georgia’s third-largest school system, have invested $15 million in safety and security improvements in schools across their district.

Twenty metal detectors will be installed initially in five high schools throughout the district via a pilot program: Cross Keys High School (Region 1), Lakeside High School (Region 2), Stone Mountain High School (Region 3), Martin Luther King Jr. High School (Region 4), Towers High School (Region 5).

DeKalb County is investing $230 million into new facilities and additions, which will include two new elementary schools, in order to counter overcrowding in what is known as the Cross Keys Cluster, according to its website.

According to DCSD board meeting notes, the new construction of school buildings now includes roll-down doors that help to increase security if a non-authorized individual enters the school premises.

A report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this report.

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