Board selects Raptor Technologies for district emergency‑notification, visitor management and reunification
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Summary
After reviewing two vendor platforms, the Board approved a multi‑building contract with Raptor Technologies for wearable panic buttons, building‑level alerting, visitor management and reunification tools; the district cited reliability and feature set in choosing Raptor over alternatives.
The Richland County CUSD 1 Board approved a contract with Raptor Technologies to provide emergency notification, wearable panic buttons, visitor management and reunification tools across the district's five buildings.
The district evaluated two vendors during a presentation: Syntegix and Raptor. The board heard from School Resource Officer Brad Anderson and Technology Coordinator Ryan Roark about practical problems with the district's current app‑based system, including inconsistent staff receipt of alerts (the presentation said only about 40% of staff reliably receive Navigate/phone messages because of cellular coverage and app logouts), rostering issues, and user friction during emergencies.
Brad Anderson told the board the district needs a more reliable activation method. "If the button is pushed 3 times ... it's going to notify myself [and] administration that they need assistance," Anderson said, describing a silent activation that summons on‑site help. Anderson also demonstrated vendor materials showing badges or lanyards with a multi‑press button that triangulates location via building radios and provides a map for responders.
Raptor's proposal includes an emergency management platform with a three‑button (assistance) and an eight‑press (full lockdown) activation model, visitor management that checks visitors against registered offender lists, and a reunification dashboard to manage parent pickup after incidents. The district highlighted the ability to push lockdown messages to every display in a building and to integrate with cameras and intercoms.
Cost and procurement: the board received a five‑year cost comparison. Syntegix's quoted first‑year cost (installation plus subscription) was higher in the presentation (year‑one total cited around $80,000 with recurring annual costs near $42,250), while Raptor's first‑year package and lower recurring fee made Raptor more attractive to the district. Raptor's recurring cost was presented as about $25,000 annually for the district's five buildings after year one; the initial setup was shown as roughly $54,095 with discounts applied in the vendor quote presented to the board.
The board voted to approve the Raptor contract and to clarify pricing and contractual details as part of finalization. Roll call on the approval recorded unanimous support among trustees present.
Why it matters: the system change aims to reduce dependence on staff mobile phones for immediate emergency notification, to provide consistent visitor screening and to speed reunification of students with guardians after a crisis.
Implementation notes: the administration recommended deployment and training before the next school year with staff badges, visitor badge procedures and a plan to provision law enforcement dispatch with access to location data and camera streams. The district also plans to keep manual sign‑in procedures as a backup and to monitor battery and maintenance schedules for wearable devices.
