OXFORD – If a crisis happens, the SAD 17 superintendent’s office will become a command center for communication with all 11 of the district schools.

Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School – the largest single building in Oxford County – will be equipped with 16 interior security cameras, and two outdoors.

All of the activity on those cameras, as well as security cameras at the entrances to the rest of the district’s schools, will be monitored from the superintendent’s office.

The base radio station and antenna will also be located at the superintendent’s office.

The equipment is being bought with a $26,875 homeland security grant awarded to the district. A policy is being developed for use of the surveillance cameras inside the school, which serves as a crisis management site for the Oxford County Emergency Management Agency.

In the grant application, Business Manager Cathy Fanjoy said the cameras at the high school were considered a high priority. There already are cameras at the major entrances, but the additional cameras will provide coverage at every point of access to the 263,000 square foot school.

With 1,200 students at the school and 150 faculty and staff, she said, “a facility used by so many, needs to have an adequate security system so that building administrators, local police and other agencies can help ensure the safety and security of the community served by the facility.”

The cameras will not only serve as a deterrent to people intending to do harm, she said, “they will provide a video record for examination in the case of an incident, or a rumor that an event of destruction is being planned.”

The district’s policy committee is in the process of developing rules for use of the cameras.