Page 104 - Security Today, July/August 2018

Moving From Mechanic to Electric
Hemet Unified School District upgrades mechanical locks BHy Dawn Nye
emet Unified School District serves more than 21,000 stu- dents across 28 school cam- puses. Located in Southern California, HUSD is one of
the largest geographical districts in Califor- nia, covering over 650 square miles including the communities of Hemet, Anza, Idyllwild, Aguanga and Winchester. HUSD staffs approximately 1,040 certified employees, 1,130 classified employees and 1,100 substi- tute employees.
Challenge
In 2017, the HUSD sought to upgrade ex- isting mechanical locks to electronic locks. With more than 5,000 doors across 28 cam- puses districtwide, the transition was sure to be a significant undertaking.
HUSD Director of Security Christopher Wynn said the District elected to upgrade to electronic access control due to many ben- efits, including the capability to quickly lock down doors remotely in an emergency. Ad- ditionally, the elimination of associated costs and time-consuming tasks commonly found with tracking and replacing traditional me- chanical keys would benefit the District.
Wynn was previously a system integrator and has a great deal of knowledge about ac- cess control products, particularly those that are best suited for the unique needs of educa- tion. He and his team, consisting of Lock- smiths Mark Sanchez and Steve Richardson, recommended installing SALTO Systems electronic locks, accessories and ProAccess SPACE management software to manage the system. The system will be utilized by more than 4,000 regular users once it is rolled out to all sites.
Solution
Wynn and his team have begun installing a combination of SALTO’s Wireless Real-Time Access Control System and SALTO Virtual Network (SVN) solutions. Wynn said they appreciated the capability of initially mixing both online and offline solutions as they begin the installation with the option of expanding the system to be fully online in the future.
SALTO’s SVN allows stand-alone locks to read, receive and write information via an encrypted and secure data-on-card system that utilizes the capabilities of RFID read/ write technology. With SVN, all access data is stored on and distributed by its operating smartcard (or other RFID credential). When presenting a smartcard to an offline stand-
alone door, not only does this control access rights to that door but, thanks to two-way communication, the door also writes data like blacklist information or battery status back to the smartcard. The smartcard then transmits this information back to the server via online wall readers that are able to update and receive information from the cards any- time and anywhere in the building.
HUSD integrated the use of SALTO Pad- locks and GEO Cylinders into the overall ac- cess control system. Within schools, there are a variety of special areas that benefit from the use of versatile electronic locking solu- tions where previously it was only possible to use a mechanical solution. Wynn said in a school environment like HUSD, this could include securing classroom cabinets or carts that carry computer notebooks from class- room to classroom.
Wynn, Sanchez and Richardson will manage the system via SALTO ProAccess SPACE management software. District site administrators will be authorized to issue replacement credentials and conduct card- holder programming.
One of the most important features of the new SALTO system, “is the ability to immediately lock all doors with the lock- down feature in ProAccess SPACE,” Wynn said. “We will use the lockdown procedures in all of our lockdown drills. The lockdown feature will be integrated into our crisis man- agement plan and will enhance our ability to
secure our school sites faster and more effi- ciently than using mechanical keys.”
Wynn said they are also working to inte- grate SALTO locks with Telecenter U, a soft- ware program that controls HUSD’s public address, phones and bell systems.
“Teachers or staff members will be able to enter a code into a phone and the system will trigger a relay to the SALTO controller which will initiate a lockdown of the online locks,” Wynn said.
According to Wynn, the district is cur- rently in the process of installing Telecenter U software at all school sites.
Wynn said HUSD’s transition to SALTO’s electronic access control system has gone smoothly and the end result will be a technologically-advanced solution that offers students and staff enhanced security.
“SALTO’s electronic access control solu- tion for school districts can be hardwired, wireless or stand-alone—and the cost to de- ploy the system is far less than other access control systems,” Wynn said. “The ability to lock down doors remotely makes the system ideal for school districts; the locks are visu- ally appealing and do not draw negative at- tention to themselves and
there are a variety of cre-
dentials to choose from.”
Dawn Nye is the U.S. Marketing Coordinator at SALTO Systems.
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