Renovations to the Hunt campus should be complete by December.
It remains to be seen how many broken windows and how many feet of stolen copper wire the school district will need to replace between now and then.
Craig Chapman, Columbus Municipal School District assistant superintendent, told the school board Monday there had been three break-ins at the construction site over the past two weeks The most recent attempt was at about 5 a.m. Monday, when a district employee saw the perpetrators trying to breach the perimeter fence, but they ran off to evade capture.
So far, Chapman said, the district has replaced three windows broken during the thefts, and the suspects have stolen copper wire and various building materials and equipment from the site.
“I guess there’s (also) a fear that vandalizing without taking anything could be a possibility,” Chapman told the board.
Once the Black high school during segregation, Hunt housed the district’s alternative school and the R.E. Hunt Museum of local African American history when a tornado badly damaged the building in February 2019. Once construction is complete, it will house the district’s sixth-graders and the museum.
Chapman said the district can add surveillance equipment to Hunt once electricity is connected to the building. Until then, he said, CMSD is relying on increased police presence. He noted each break-in happened at a different time of day.
“They are patrolling the area a lot more,” Chapman said. “We’ve made the (incident) reports. Right now, that’s what we’re able to do.
“… As far as having someone there on site around the clock, that’s not feasible,” he added.
Board member Robert Smith also mentioned better lighting coming soon to the area that should increase visibility around the campus.
The city council on Aug. 6 approved increasing its streetlight wattage from 90 to 250 along 20th Street North, between Seventh and 14th Avenue.
Board member James Richardson asked if adding razor wire to the top of the fences would help. Smith shot down that idea.
“To my understanding, they are cutting holes in the fence … instead of going to the top,” Smith said.
When contacted Tuesday, Bryan Moore, Columbus Police Department’s public information officer, did not comment on the break-ins or specific measures the department is taking to prevent them.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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