Mount Gilead School District
Enhances Learning and Safety with the Use of Technology
Description
The Mount Gilead Exempted Village School (EVS) District, located in Mount Gilead, Ohio, includes Park Avenue Elementary School, Mount Gilead Middle School and Mount Gilead High School. The school district strongly believes in the importance of technology and provides a variety of tools to support student learning. The technology infrastructure supports a wide variety of technologies including IP telephony, video streaming, security (IP cameras, alerting devices), wireless access, and web-based applications.Opportunity
Schools across the country are faced with the challenge of keeping their students and teachers safe, while maintaining an environment that promotes learning and social growth. The Mount Gilead school district is addressing this issue head on by implementing a technology strategy that directly supports student learning, and at the same time provides safety and security.Solution
The District Technology Team, which oversees technology operations, makes recommendations, and contributes to the development of the District Technology Plan, took an enterprise wide approach when implementing the Cisco IP telephony system across all of its schools. This approach has allowed them to seamlessly add various types of applications and technologies to the network, such as video streaming, IP video cameras, and wireless alerting devices including panic buttons and door sensors.
Status Solutions worked in conjunction with Cisco Systems technology partner IPcelerateTM to deliver an alert and notification solution to the Mount Gilead school district. A direct link was created between the wireless panic buttons, the IPsessionTM appliance provided by IPcelerateTM, the Situational Awareness and Response Assistant (SARA) software provided by Status Solutions, and the Cisco IP phone system. When a fixed or wireless panic button is activated or a monitored door or window is opened, then a voice or text alert will be sent directly to the principal or other pre-defined security locations such as the local police. Again, the emergency event triggers an alert that is sent directly to the proper location and individual for an immediate response.
Implementing a Cost Effective Solution
The Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) at Park Avenue Elementary School wanted to support the efforts being made by the district to improve the life safety technologies already in place. The plan was to expand the alerting capabilities to include video. The PTO allocated $5,000 towards the purchase of video surveillance technology to be used across the school system. Outdoor cameras typically retail for $950 each, while indoor cameras are about $450 each. Status Solutions provided four indoor and four outdoor video cameras, along with the video server and necessary sensors for the amount that was allocated for this project by the PTO.
Incorporating Video Alerting to Increase Security
The video surveillance system is integrated into the network, so that the SARA system can be used as a notification device to activate video recording based on an alert event. With the video application and voice application working cohesively on the same IP network, the overall system is easy to maintain, and allows the Mount Gilead school district to continue to leverage their technology investments, as well as to increase the security provided to students and staff.
Summary
In comparison to other schools across the country, Mount Gilead school district is leading the way in regards to their technology strategy. By leveraging their existing IP platform they are now able to provide wireless alerting devices that literally can help save lives in an emergency situation. Door and window monitoring, fixed and wireless panic buttons, along with video surveillance cameras provide the means by which SARA can notify the appropriate individuals and authorities in the event an incident occurs.
Mike Wellin, Mount Gilead school district Technology Director, comments, "We believe that is vital we take advantage of the state-of-the-art technologies that are available to us to help improve the safety and security of our teachers and our students."
