This is a brief overview of one school district’s quest for improved security and the path that they followed to achieve a cost-effective, state-of-the-art, integrated security solution
for their District.
For security reasons, the name of the particular school district has been withheld but all other factors are entirely as they happened and reflect accurately the nature and detail of the initial findings of a Vulnerability Assessment (VA); how the school district acquired funding for the project; why they elected to proceed with the security solution that they are now implementing; the basis of their security design criteria, and their expectations for the future.
School District Background Data:
The School District is located in a rural area of the State and comprises eleven (11) actual schools currently. These include a high school, a middle school, and nine (9) elementary schools. The total square footage for the eleven (11) schools equals 803,204 square feet. There are approximately 6,400 students with almost 2,000 at the high school, a little under 1,000 at the middle school, and an average of 400 students per elementary school.
Additional properties owned or leased by the school district include the following:
- Bus Depot (2,400 sq. ft. & approximately 100 school buses)
- School Administration Building (14,000 sq. ft.)
There are plans to acquire or construct additional facilities but these are in the very early stages of planning at this time but would be accommodated under the new security system.
There are also two major military bases that are very close to some of the schools and where many of the students housed at one of those bases, attends schools within this school district.
The architect (Regan Young England Butera) and administration of this school district are particularly forward thinking in their approach to security within the district and immediately after “9/11” began to evaluate security and possible threats to their schools from terrorist attack and other threat levels.
In many ways it was this same forward thinking that persuaded the School District Board of Education (BOE) to move ahead with an initial Vulnerability Assessment (VA) of the entire district before putting together plans for a new security system.
Download the full case study: School District Security