When it comes to our schools, we want to ensure an optimal level of security, and the task of doing this largely falls on school districts. Within districts, it’s imperative to provide an environment that’s secure enough for staff, students and parents of pupils to feel safe. The bigger the school district, the more daunting this task may seem.
“Within districts, it’s imperative to provide an environment that’s secure enough for staff, students and parents of pupils to feel safe.”
But with the proper solution and partnership in place, ensuring a highly secure environment can be carried out with ease and great results. Administrators in Spring Lake Park School District north of Minneapolis realized this when they turned to Entrust Datacard and IdentiSys Inc. for help rolling out a more secure and efficient system of identity vetting.
Spring Lake Park School District sees big results with eID
Spring Lake Park Schools is hardly a small district. It counts 5,100 pupils among its total student body, and includes a staff of more than 600 individuals. Students come from three Minneapolis-area suburbs to attend the various schools within Spring Lake Park. In terms of security, this presents officials with a fairly sizeable operation that needs to be overseen and protected. To that end, the school district convenes annually to adapt and solidify its Strategic Operations Plan, a component of which addresses safety and security.
When it comes to building access and general identity verification, the district decided to leverage a very dependable method: ID badges. Everyone affiliated with the district’s schools – from staffers to students – is issued a badge. For staff members, wearing the badge is required at all times. Students, on the other hand, only need to keep it with them. However, for pupils, the function of these badges extends beyond security – students also use them for checking out books from the library, signing out tech equipment and getting into school dances.
In terms of issuance of the ID cards, the school district looked for the best option out there. They settled on Datacard, and have been a loyal customer for the past 10 years. The school district uses Datacard printers for ID badge issuance. Over the years, the district has been very satisfied with the service Datacard provides – and officials became even more satisfied recently, when it was time to update the system.
Carrying out an update the right way
When it was time to update the solution, district technology coordinator Steve Halvorson said he knew the district could rely on Datacard and IdentitySys. The update to the solution included:
- A new data integration solution: With this new solution, the school district was able to link up its Datacard hardware and software to its campus student information system. This linkage made the process of producing the ID cards much easier, since the printer was able to access current student information stored in the campus system.
- CD800 ID Card Printers: Another key element of the school district’s update was the installation of CD800 card printers at three separate badge printing centers in the district. As a card issuance solution, the CD800 is designed to provide optimal productivity and protection.
With the new school year beginning, it’s important for all school districts out there to evaluate their security policies and determine if they are doing everything possible to ensure that students and staff are well protected. Spring Lake Park School District offers a valuable example of how all districts can implement and upgrade their security solutions to meet the evolving needs of the day.
