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City Schools of Decatur combines safety and IT; rolls out Syntegix alerts, visitor checks and camera upgrades
Summary
District announced a new Safety & Technology Services division and described recent rollouts: wearable Syntegix panic/assistance buttons, an SRP (standard response protocol) tied to intercom alerts, CrisisGo communications, a visitor-management pilot and a grant-funded camera upgrade at Decatur High School.
The City Schools of Decatur presented a major reorganization and a slate of safety and technology projects on Jan. 14, describing how new tools and procedures aim to improve crisis response and day-to-day campus security.
Esten Nelson, Chief of Safety and Technology Services, told the board the district merged Information Services with Safety and Security last summer to form a single division and has hired Director James Brown to lead daily safety operations and Carol Gibson to strengthen the district—s Infinite Campus and data tools. "Step 2 this summer was to hire a new shepherd for Infinite Campus and we were fortunate to have Carol Gibson join our organization," Nelson said.
Nelson described four major initiatives already underway or coming this semester: 1) Syntegix wearable alert devices; 2) a standard response protocol (SRP) aligned to Syntegix alerts and intercom messaging; 3) CrisisGo for incident communications and accountability; and 4) a visitor-management pilot plus a design-and-pricing process for security vestibules and a camera upgrade at Decatur High School funded by a Department of Education grant.
On Syntegix, Nelson said employees wear an alert badge that can be pressed three times as an "I need help" signal for non-life-threatening assistance; eight presses initiate an immediate lockdown. He said the system already triggered multiple times, three of them inadvertently, and the district treated those occasions as learning opportunities: "We consider these to be instructional speak assessments for learning, what not to do," Nelson said, and stressed that staff training and communications are part of the rollout.
The SRP posters have been distributed to schools and the district will publish SRP guidance on the website and educate families about what each alert label (shelter, lockdown, evacuate, secure) means. Nelson said Syntegix integrates with the Decatur 911 center so an eight-press lockdown notifies local dispatchers immediately.
CrisisGo will be used for unified communications and will allow staff to take roll and coordinate during incidents, Nelson said. He also described a pilot of a visitor-management system at Westchester Elementary that will require visitors to scan a state-issued ID; the software checks IDs against registries and issues a guest badge showing the visitor—s location in the building. District staff said they will design messaging and processes to handle false positives and people without state IDs.
Nelson said the high school will receive an upgraded, enterprise-grade camera system to be architected by a district contractor; the district also issued an RFP for design-build work on secure vestibules and expects to recommend a contract next month. He said the majority of work on the Syntegix, SRP and CrisisGo rollouts is expected to be complete by the end of the semester, with camera installations and construction timelines depending on design complexity.
Ending: The district invited the public to a Jan. 27 Safety Summit at Decatur High School to present SRP materials and answer questions with city and district partners; staff said they would continue testing and training and refine communications to reduce inadvertent alerts.
