Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Traverse City Schools Ensure Student and Staff Safety

  • 12/01/13

The Traverse City Area Public School District (TCAPS) covers 300 square miles over three counties in Michigan, with thousands of students, teachers and staff.

The increased need to protect them and the valuable public property of its 26 buildings prompted a custom security system to monitor all school activity from a central hub, integrating all security systems into one easy-to-use yet effective platform.

“We worked with multiple solutions over the years, each with pros and cons,” stated Paul Mahon, Director of Construction and Maintenance for TCAPS. “Installing one district-wide solution that supports our multiple levels of security ensures the safety of our students and staff — the number one priority.”

Milestone XProtect Corporate software allows authorized staff to monitor for safety, security and disciplinary actions at any time.

It is a full-scale, federated security solution that includes video streaming, alarm management, integrated access control via card access systems, emergency panic lockdowns, video synchronization and control of each system centrally.

TCAPS was a large-scale design that involved 26 unique structures for a vast amount of engineering: different wiring, ceiling setups and monitoring station locations with the centralized video surveillance integration.

XProtect was implemented quickly and efficiently, minimizing interruption for the administrators who monitor hundreds of cameras from Panasonic and Arecont Vision.

Throughout the district, 19 monitoring stations were established with HP video workstations, HP ProLiant video servers and HP StorageWorks for powerful storage capacity — important for so much video data.

Milestone XProtect Corporate supports an unlimited number of cameras, users and sites, making it the perfect match for TCAPS’ plans for additional cameras.

Since the security upgrade, there have been instances where school property was reported missing, and those trained to use the system monitored and reviewed the recorded events.

The evidence was quickly and easily exported from the Milestone system and provided to the local police with a built-in viewer. “XProtect is really well put together, powerful software that meets our complicated needs,” concludes Mahon.

Milestone Systems
www.milestonesys.com

This article originally appeared in the School Planning & Management December 2013 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • LAN, Inc. Opens Office in College Station, Texas

    Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN) recently announced the opening of a new office in College Station, Texas, to support its regional client base, according to a news release. The organization provides engineering, design, and program management services for water, wastewater, transportation, stormwater, and education clients in the Brazos Valley.

  • Preparing for the Next Era of Healthcare Education, Innovation

    Across the country, public universities and community colleges are accelerating investments in healthcare education facilities as part of a broader strategy to address workforce shortages, modernize outdated infrastructure, and expand clinical training capacity. These projects, which are often located at the center of campus health and science districts, are no longer limited to traditional classrooms.

  • California School District Completes Elementary School Modernization

    The San Diego Unified School District in San Diego, Calif., recently held a ribbon-cutting for a whole-site modernization of Pacific Beach Elementary School, according to local news. The school first opened with one building in 1930 and added six more between 1938 and 1957.

  • Illinois State University Breaks Ground on College of Fine Arts Transformation

    Illinois State University in Normal, Ill., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts transformation project, according to university news. The series of new constructions and renovations will upgrade spaces in Centennial East, the Center for the Visual Arts, and the Center for the Performing Arts, as well as replace the existing Centennial West facility with a new Commons Building.