District 214 says cameras installed for St. Viator traffic study violated stadium lease
A consultant hired by St. Viator High School installed cameras in late August at Northwest Suburban High School District 214’s Forest View Educational Center in Arlington Heights to collect traffic data before and after a home football game.
But district officials told St. Viator to take the cameras down, saying the installation of the devices violated terms of the lease that allows the Catholic school to use the Forest View football field.
The equipment — seven Miovision Scout Plus video-based traffic data collection units — was temporarily attached to utility poles in and around the Forest View campus at 2121 S. Goebbert Road: five within the public right-of-way and two on school district property, which provided an “optimal view” to count vehicles coming to and from St. Viator’s Aug. 21 varsity home opener, a school spokesperson said Thursday.
An engineering firm hired by Viator was taking in-and-out traffic counts at the access drives as part of a traffic study for the school’s proposed athletic fields redevelopment, the spokesperson said.
The proposal — dubbed “The Backyard Project” — would allow football, among other sports, to be played on Viator’s campus at 1213 E. Oakton St. for the first time in the school’s history. But the plans — which call for two turf competition and practice fields, stadium bleachers for 1,500, an eight-lane running track, eight tennis courts, two video scoreboards, light poles, a sound system and more — has faced pushback from neighbors and early skepticism from the village board.
The cameras were installed the evening of Aug. 20 and used to count vehicles between 2 p.m. and midnight on Aug. 21. Some cameras were taken down as soon as Aug. 22, with all others removed by Aug. 24, the school spokesperson said.
The cameras, used widely in the industry, including agencies such as the Illinois Department of Transportation, were not for security purposes and did not collect personal information, the school official said.
The data captured included size of vehicles and direction of travel, but vehicle identifying information such as license plates, make, model or color was not determined or tabulated, according to St. Viator.
District 214 spokeswoman Lindsey Dombrowski said a staff member noticed the devices, and district officials then worked with law enforcement to investigate and identify the vendor responsible for installing them.
Installing equipment on district grounds “without navigating the established communication protocols” violated terms of the lease, District 214 Superintendent Scott Rowe wrote in an Aug. 25 letter to St. Viator President Ryan Aiello.
That written correspondence followed a phone call a day earlier in which Aiello apologized to Rowe and had the cameras removed.
“Saint Viator’s agreement with District 214 requires advance notice and authorization for activities at Forest View,” according to a statement from the private high school. “The (engineering) firm did not obtain that authorization before installing the equipment. Upon learning of the issue, Saint Viator took responsibility and apologized to the district. Saint Viator values its relationship with District 214 and the Arlington Heights community and will follow applicable notification and authorization procedures for any future traffic-study activities.”
District 214 does have security cameras inside and outside the Forest View building, and under a November 2023 agreement, Arlington Heights police can access them during emergencies.
cplacek@dailyherald.com