Case Study Highlights Texas District’s Campus Security Upgrades
The Taft Independent School District near Corpus Christi, Texas, recently partnered with Intech Southwest Services to revamp its campus security technology system, according to a news release. Intech has released a case study on its website detailing the process that advanced the district’s technology by more than 20 years in less than three weeks.
The State of Texas recently launched an initiative to fund the purchase of new security components like gates, automatic door locks, fences, camera systems, access control, and more, the news release reports. The Intech leadership team took a consultative role in helping the small district make decisions with limited funds and staffing.
“Over the past 23 years, Intech has had the privilege of serving K-12 districts of all sizes and complexities,” said Intech Southwest Services Owner Kevin Reyher. “We want to emphasize to even the smallest Texas districts that, no matter the time of year, they have the ability to implement elaborate new technologies on relatively short notice, especially when something as critical as campus security is involved.”
TISD previously used a small system of older, mismatched, low-res cameras tethered to a local server, leading to constant problems with upgrading and syncing devices. There was also no connection to local law enforcement and limited storage capacity to archive video recordings.
Intech installed 90 Verkada camera units across all three TISD campuses in three weeks, working outside school hours to minimize disruptions. In addition to streamlining the district’s technologies into a single cloud-based system, the Verkada solution also allows local law enforcement access and views of each camera, according to the news release.
“In today’s environment, campus security is of the utmost importance, and it’s a must to have high-tech security in place within K-12 campuses,” said TISD Computer Technician Edgar Mendoza. “Cameras, and the complexity of their networking and integration, are critical campus safety components that cannot be overstated today. The moment was right for this upgrade, and we didn’t want to waste any time.”
About the Author
Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].