Located in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, Ariz., Gilbert Christian Schools operates three private school campuses for students ranging in age from pre-kindergarten through high school. The districtis home to more than 1,000 students and nearly 200 staff members.

Initially school officials opted to adopt a facial recognition solution they hoped would both improve security and reduce their reliance on physical credentials alone. However, they soon realised that the biometric system by itself would not satisfy their security needs.

In the end the solutions provided achieved their goal through the use of Vanderbilt’s SMS access control system, which had been initially integrated with the facial recognition solution at the Greenfield Campus.  The school recently realised that Vanderbilt was meeting all of their access needs and decided it no longer required the biometric aspect of the system.

As a result, the SMS platform has subsequently been deployed at the Agritopia and high school campuses as well, enabling the district to streamline its security operations, such as being able to initiate a district-wide lockdown in an instant.

Both “soft” and “hard” buttons have been installed throughout all three schools which give staff the ability to put the district into lockdown and alert administrators of potential security threats. On the Greenfield Campus, 365 Technologies also integrated a panic alarm with SMS that provides every teacher with a serial numbered button that can give school officials immediate information about who initiated the alert and where an event is taking place in the facility.

SMS has given the school the ability to set up varying access privileges for different individuals based on time-based restrictions and other variables, which is something they couldn’t do previously.

“Pretty much everyone has loved it. We’re always getting feedback from folks saying, ‘Hey, we want more doors added at the different campuses or more access points so we can control things even more.' The Vanderbilt software runs everything very smoothly.” Confirmed, Barry Klontz, IT Manager, Gilbert Christian Schools.