EN- Industry Focuses

Security conversations with Melissa Tebbenkamp, Director of Instructional Technology and Travis Hux, Assistant Superintendent of Support Services at Raytown Quality Schools Every child and parent should feel their school is a safe haven. That's why seven years ago, Raytown, Missouri, like many U.S. schools, decided to invest in a district-wide security platform to prevent and respond effectively to issues like intrusions, vandalism, petty theft, and bullying. Based on input from Raytown's Safety Task Force, which includes community stakeholders as well as school personnel, the district upgraded from 50 security cameras to over 800. They also invested in technology to control access in the schools, which included ten elementary, three middle, two senior high, one alternative school, an early childhood center, a school for handicapped students, and a vocational school. In this Q&A, Melissa Tebbenkamp, Director of Instructional Technology and Travis Hux, Assistant Superintendent of Support Services, reveal some of the challenges and lessons learned over the years as they have continued to invest in technology to keep the school district's 9,000 K-12 students safe. Q: What are the top challenges that you face in your environment? A: Travis: Keeping our buildings secure by making sure only those who need to be in the facility are in the facility and keeping 1,400 employees trained and performing safety protocols appropriately. Q: How does Genetec technology help you overcome or manage those challenges? A: Travis: The Omnicast IP video management system (VMS) is easy to use and allows us a decentralized approach to monitoring and investigating. The administrative staff at each school has the power to use the VMS themselves, so they don't have to go through red tape and long waits for access to video. We're planning to integrate our school bus video surveillance system as well, and in the future, we hope to add facial recognition. Melissa: Taking the guesswork out of investigations has been incredibly helpful. The first month we deployed Genetec, we had a student go missing. Several students had denied ever seeing or speaking with the missing student, but because we had video, we were able to track every hour of that day and locate the missing student. Our schools are always in a state of a soft lockdown, which means our students and staff can roam the halls freely but every perimeter and interior door is closed and locked. Using Omnicast VMS and Synergis access control allows us to easily manage the flow of people who come into our buildings and limits what doors they can enter. We would have so many more challenges if we didn't have this technology. "Using Omnicast VMS and Synergis access control allows us to easily manage the flow of people who come into our buildings and limits what doors they can enter. We would have so many more challenges if we didn't have this technology."

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