ELLENSBURG SCHOOL SAFETY CASE STUDY

The Town of Ellensburg, Washington is just off I-90 and is a popular stop over for travelers going through Snoqualmie Pass. With so many travelers coming and going through town, Ellenburg School District (ESD) faces an uphill battle to provide campus security and student safety, especially when it comes to on-campus visitors, workmen and volunteers. EPS needed a consistent and preemptive awareness and management solution for visitors.

The District includes 3 elementary schools, 1 middle, 1 high and an alternative high school. ''We needed a fast, easy and consistent process across all of our schools that would help identify and categorize our campus visitors. Additionally, we wanted to be able to add alerts for different situations like court orders or visitors who may require an escort due to legal issues", said Neil Musser, Security and Safety Director of the Ellensburg School District.

He continued, "Some schools used visitor manager stations, some schools used pencil and clip board and no school integrated with both the district and the Skyward database to provide a real time match between the student and the guardian file."

Musser partnered with Legend ID based out of Kent, Washington to find an affordable and proactive solution for campus visitor management. ''Schools are unique in their visitor manager needs'' said Doug Dotchin, Professional Services Manager for Legend ID. ''Unlike a manufacturing facility or secured office building, most schools have open campuses and see a lot more unscheduled visitors on campus. Identifying, tracking and storing who is on campus at any given time with a visitor manager machine not only provides a safer campus, it provides a more efficient tool for tracking the schools largest resource, its volunteers."

Ellensburg carefully evaluated several options and selected Visitor Manager by ScholarChip and ScholarChip's visit management kiosk as the traffic control solution for their 5 campuses. Legend ID is the Authorized Solution Provider and Integrator for ScholarChip in Washington State and Oregon. 

The visitor is verified with a quick scan of a government issued ID. Information collected from the ID's barcode allows the system to compare the data and photographic image to known sex offenders and the school or district's list of individuals with limited or no permission to be on campus. 

If approved, a photo of the visitor is captured and a visitor badge is printed.

The system is automated, providing Ellensburg Schools with real time data. The visitor simply swipes a government-issued ID such as a driver's license and the system verifies that the visitor's status. If approved, a photo is taken and a visitor ID is printed complete with the visitor's image and visit details.

Collected information is available for analysis and also provides an objective, quantifiable database for staffing and security decisions. Custom alerts for specific visitors, at specific locations, can be sent via text or email to the school's resource officer or designated staff for response,

Ellensburg Schools also work with students from Central Washington University. Students working on their teaching degree have a required number of volunteers hours. The visitor manager kiosk at individual schools can accurately record and track each volunteer hour served and deliver a detailed report of volunteers and hours served.

Visitor Manager from ScholarChip is a powerful tool that can integrate with the district's student information system Skyward (SIS). It also enables visitors to be cross-checked against ScholarChip's national database of known sex offenders and individuals prohibited or limited on campus by the individual school or district.

The mobile kiosk has a small footprint and is basically plug-and-play, ready to use as soon as it is connected via the Internet to the ScholarChip secure cloud. Student pick-up is also available when integrated with the school's SIS.

Additional Visit Manager features and benefits available to Ellensburg include:

• Automated visitor data collection including purpose for visit, destination and duration of visit
• Collects visitor demographics, photos, final destination and reason for visit
• Categorizes visitors by group
• Prints visitor passes
• Notifications by text and email
• Visitor station messaging
• Time clock reporting by category

To learn more about the Ellensburg implementation of ScholarChip Visit Manager, contact [email protected] or call Joe Behlke or Doug Dotchin at 425-251-1670. Email: Joe Behlke. Legend ID is a sponsor of the 2019 WASBO spring event and will be hosting Booth 99 in the Spokane Convention Center, May 8-10.

Legend ID is an ARMET Group Authorized Reseller serving the Northeast USA.