Lawrence’s school board will hear Monday about a concept that seems like something out of a futuristic sci-fi movie: the “Digital District.”

But the idea – connecting the school district’s various operations systems in 22 buildings with student and personnel management software – could be here sooner than you may think.

“By March, our buildings will be fully integrated,” said Tom Bracciano, director of the school district’s facilities and operations.

The board, during a 5:30 p.m. Monday study session, will hear about a proposal from the Siemens Corporation to connect all district systems. The study session will be at the Educational Support and Distribution Center, 110 McDonald Drive.

Bracciano said the school district has been looking at creating such links for about two years when the planning started for the South Junior High School building.

In the past, such all-inclusive systems did everything, but did everything poorly, Bracciano said.

The first piece of the new integrated system is nearly ready, he said.

Last week, the board approved closed-circuit TV cameras. As part of that system, security, fire alarms, heating, air conditioning and electrical systems throughout all the district’s buildings are integrated and will talk to each other, he said.

Building automation software will soon be purchased and, by March, should be totally integrated, he said.

“You could sit there and watch what door was opened by who, you can watch them on the CCTV (closed-circuit TV), you can monitor the fire alarm,” he said.

The card key a person is wearing could trigger the building software so the lights turn on in that person’s room and the heat turn on – but only in that room, Bracciano said.

The final piece to all of it will be getting the district’s entire software package integrated, he said.