Education Solutions | Case Studies
New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated Schools
Tom Handy
Manager, Energy Systems
New Albany-Floyd County CSC
Located in Floyd County, Indiana, directly across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky, the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corporation serves the city of New Albany, the towns of Georgetown and Greenville, and Floyd County townships covering approximately 149 square miles. The system includes thirteen elementary schools, three middle schools, two high schools, an area vocational school, and an adult learning center and has an enrollment of over 11,000 students.
Security at the district is the responsibility of the Facilities Management department in conjunction with school resource police officers from the local law enforcement. The Facilities Management department, led by Facilities Director, Bill Wiseheart, is also responsible for a sophisticated Energy Management System that monitors HVAC systems and includes hundreds of controllers, and thousands of individual control points.
The Problem
In early 2004, the Facilities Management department became increasingly concerned about the state of the video surveillance. The installed video security systems were beginning to fail, and the cost of maintenance, which was performed by an outside vendor, was becoming prohibitive. Because of the proprietary nature of the video surveillance systems, personnel from the outside vendor were the only ones that could maintain the systems. Clearly, it was time for a change, and Bill assigned Tom Handy, Manager, Energy Systems, to lead the effort.
The Solution
After an extensive search of both local and national vendors, as well as a performing a pilot test, Tom recommended the Video Insight products. Chief among the reasons was that the Video Insight products ran on a standard Windows based operating system and were delivered on industry leading Dell servers. New Albany wanted to ensure that the systems could be maintained by in house personnel.
There are now 17 servers with over 200 cameras located throughout the school district. The installations are linked over the fiber network and are viewable centrally from the Facilities Service Center. The Video Insight Network Client allows Facility Management personnel to view cameras from throughout the district on one computer. Police stationed at the middle and high schools can monitor cameras from their local offices, and each school principal can monitor all cameras at their own school. Facility personnel also have the ability to monitor the systems from their homes over a VPN connection. The cameras are strategically located in halls, cafeterias, gyms, building exteriors, and in each indoor swimming pool.
The Results
The results of the comprehensive surveillance systems have been impressive. Like any school district, New Albany had its share of vandalism, theft, and conflicts among students. Once a system was installed, however, there was a marked decrease in incidents. One telling example was a bicycle theft. Not more than 1 hour after a new camera was installed overlooking a bike rack, a bicycle was stolen. The camera captured the entire incident and recorded it to the server. Authorities identified the suspect immediately, went to his house, and apprehended him in the act of sanding the paint off of the stolen bicycle! As Tom Handy says, "All it takes is one incident, and the word gets out."
The reaction of faculty and staff has been enthusiastic. Obviously the cost of such an extensive installation can be daunting. However, the school system used some creative approaches to obtaining funding including applying for and receiving statewide safety grants. Once installed, principals and administration staff saw results immediately and were more eager to budget additional amounts for the security systems. The school district took a slow but steady approach to the implementation and they continue to expand the use of the system. Currently New Albany has mostly analog cameras, however, they plan to use IP cameras as well. They can quickly install IP cameras using their existing network infrastructure and monitor both analog and IP cameras from the same Video Insight Network Client.
And have the costs decreased? According to Tom Handy, the costs of installing and maintaining the systems have been reduced dramatically while at the same time the systems are proving invaluable in the deterrence of vandalism, theft and student conflicts.
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