School District 27 (SD 27) is beefing up security and alarm systems at 25 district facilities in the district, starting with Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School (PSO).
The security and fire alarm systems of the 25 buildings have been integrated into a new modern network.
For the last 40 years, the district has been working with a variety of ad-hoc systems cobbled together to get the job done, but after three years of research, staff have spent the last year working to standardize and digitize this infrastructure.
SD 27 staff added new door fobs to the main entrances of each building, installed new security sensors in the halls and integrated a new fire alarm system, all accessible via apps on staff's phones and computers. PSO in 100 Mile House is the first school where all these new upgrades are coming together.
Sean Cameron, one of SD 27's directors of instruction who oversees the IT department, has helped facilitate this project over the last several years. Cameron has been working with a team that includes Adam Van Riesen, SD 27's electrical lead head, and Kyle Riley, one of their IT administrators. Both men bring a wealth of hands-on experience to the table with Van Riesen working for SD 27 since 2008 and Riley since 2020.
"Ultimately it's been a four-year journey with these guys being able to bring things forward and getting an understanding of the problem," Cameron said, noting prior to the upgrades, the systems required a lot of creative problem-solving. To prevent the same from happening again, he said staff wanted to do their research.
"We didn't want to jump into anything so we went through a process of identifying what were the pain points and what were the things that weren't working. We wanted to make sure with the work these guys were going to do, we got it right."
One of the main upgrades staff, teachers and user groups will notice is a fob system to access the school, operated by Bosch Security Systems Inc. Each staff member is issued a fob device they can use to access the school. By simply pressing it to a sensor they'll disarm the school's security system and unlock the main door, all at once.
Van Riesen said before staff had to use a physical key and a keypad to type in a code to disarm the system, all within 20 seconds. In addition to being inefficient, this system also had several vulnerabilities and issues causing false alarms.
Due to its age, the system could not forget access codes. This meant if a teacher told someone their code they could still use it to access the school, even after a staff member left their job. Furthermore, Van Riesen noted if someone in passing intentionally or accidentally hit a number on the pad, the number would be saved in the log and when someone tried to key in their own code, it would register only the first three digits and possibly trip the alarm.
"A staff member can only get into buildings they're currently assigned to work in. Right now we have key fob access at all 25 sites across the district and all the main entrances. Phase two is to expand to more commonly used entrances," Riley explained.
By contrast, the fobs can be deactivated if they're lost or stolen like a credit card. All Riley has to do is go into the Bosch system and put a hold on that fob, rendering it useless. If the fob is recovered or found it can be reactivated following a similar procedure. Riley noted this will also save the district money as they'll no longer have to buy new locks and keys every few years for each school.
"One day we want to be fully electronic and just have a physical backup for the manager of the site and maintenance employees, that's pretty much it for physical keys," Riley added.
Once the doors are all linked electronically, Cameron explained this would allow the school, in a lockdown situation, to secure all exits with a simple press of a button rather than having to go manually lock each one. That's something they plan to have implemented by the end of this school year.
Cameron is quite proud of Van Riesen and Riley for figuring out a way to automate the authorization process for the fobs. He noted this is something not even the alarm company Bosch knew how to do and as far as he is aware, SD 27 is the only school district in B.C. with such technology implemented.
"Other people have a Bosch system. What they don't have is an automated system that pulls data from your HR system that says 'you automatically have access to this building'. These guys set it up once and walk away and that is a unique thing," Cameron remarked.
Riley added that updating access permission for the over 1,000 people SD 27 employees was practically a full-time job in itself before this.
Moving into the school itself, SD 27 has put up brand new motion sensors at the intersection of every hallway to monitor for any intruders. The old system was sensitive and could be triggered by something as simple as a sheet of paper. Their new sensors rely on three built-in relays including line cross, motion and infrared and will only trigger if two of them are activated.
Another major upgrade is the 'brain' of the security system, its central control server. Van Riesen said with the old system, he had no way of easily knowing which sensors were working and which weren't. In fact, when he went to replace many with the new sensors he found some had been improperly installed and had never worked.
"Our old system was based on old technology and very cumbersome to use," Van Riesen said, noting they often wouldn't know there was a problem until someone reported an issue.
"Now we're dealing with a local company where we can call a real person familiar with the area. We can also do a lot of our work over our cell phones and computers. We can gather information and log into the system in real-time from anywhere."
Van Riesen explained they have two different apps, one that allows them to see what the alarm monitoring company sees and one allowing them to disarm or arm the security monitors in real time. He showed the 100 Mile Free Press how he can even access the logs of when the sensors are triggered or turned off, all in real-time.
"It's really helped us do our jobs and spend more time on other things instead of just trying to limp along an old system. Now we can make improvements and keep moving forward," said Van Riesen.
Cameron noted in a school district as large as SD 27, it's key to be able to remotely manage alarm systems in this way.
Another upgrade they are finalizing for PSO is changes to the school's fire alarm system. In addition to digitizing it, Van Riesen said a program now checks the status of the alarm automatically every 180 seconds and will immediately call the fire department if needed. Van Riesen said in a crisis this will free up staff to focus on evacuating students.
He said his next step is to create a new map of PSO and eventually each school showing where all the fire alarms are located. This will be converted into an LED screen at the front of each school which can show the area where the alarm was triggered. Whenever a firefighter has to enter the building all they'll have to do is look at that map to determine where they're needed, once again reducing the amount of time wasted during an emergency.
Finally, the other major upgrade they've done to the school is to change how administrators can access on-site cameras. Not every school has security cameras, but high schools such as PSO do have exterior and interior cameras. The system is linked to administrators' accounts/devices.
"It's super simple and all automatic in the background," said Riley of the access for the administration.
Riley said SD 27 doesn't want to be reactive to issues anymore and instead be proactive. One thing he is working on is notification tracking where cameras will notify administrators if a person lingers for a long period by the school, especially late at night. He also showed the 100 Mile Free Press an example of different cameras tracking an individual around the school's perimeter.
While all the work they've done is already benefiting students and staff, Riley, Van Riesen and Cameron aren't done. They plan to add other safety and utility features to the system as they go, such as electronic locks controlled by fobs on every exterior door of schools and the ability for teachers and principals to use their cellphones to access the PA system to make announcements. They've already added a feature to allow fobs to transfer files from a computer to one of the school's printers and are excited to see what else they can do.
"The limits of what we can and can't do has changed which is kind of exciting. We kind of nerd out about all the things (we can do now)," Van Riesen said.
In the meantime, however, Riley and Van Riesen said they're happy to have had a role in improving the school security system. Both noted that the current set-up is already saving them time and in the long run will more than pay for itself.
"It's a huge relief. Our system's core part of the job is safety and security for staff and students: fire alarm, intruder alarm all those pieces. So to have a system we know that works and we can rely on it gives (Riley and Van Risen) the confidence it's going to work," Cameron remarked. "For me, as part of the senior team, it helps me sleep well at night that we have a system that is going to ensure safety. As important, these guys are going to be able to think of new ways to keep the district moving forward."
