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

  • Q&A: How to Prevent Kitchen Grease Fires in Commercial Kitchens

    School cafeterias and university dining halls serve thousands of meals daily, relying on high-heat equipment like fryers, grills, and ovens. While these operations keep students fed, they also generate significant grease-laden vapors. Without proper controls, this grease becomes a silent fire threat. As a certified exhaust cleaning specialist and business coach who has helped hundreds of institutional facilities achieve NFPA 96 compliance, I emphasize that proactive grease management isn’t optional; it’s a core fire/life safety practice.

  • Porter Family Center

    Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of New Construction.

  • UCF Modernizes College of Hospitality Management

    The University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla., recently completed a major renovation effort for the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, according to a news release. The project modernized 77,600 square feet worth of academic classrooms, teaching labs, and collaborative spaces to support both students and faculty.

  • Wold Architects & Engineers Announces Acquisition of JJCA

    Wold Architects & Engineers, based in Minneapolis, Minn., recently announced that it has acquired JJCA, an architecture firm based in Nashville, Tenn., according to a press release. JJCA specializes in healthcare and education design; the partnership allows both firms to expand their presence across the country while building on existing strengths.