ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — A local high school in Englewood on Friday was not as quiet as it usually is during summer break. Hundreds of volunteers were bustling around on Friday, installing technology, programming it, and building up the infrastructure to support it.
"This is part of our annual Social Responsibility Day where we shut down operations around the globe and all 11,000 of our colleagues go into the local communities and give back," explained Chad Ferguson with Convergint, which designs and installs security solutions. "We donate security systems and security system upgrades at no cost to schools within our community."
This year's recipient was Colorado's Finest High School of Choice in Englewood.
One of the key projects is lockdown and secure perimeter buttons. The school district and local law enforcement use the same definitions established by the I Love U Guys foundation.
Those buttons mean different things: Lockdown means "locks, lights, out of sight." Students are trained to stay out of sight, remain quiet and keep doors shut. Staff is responsible for getting students out of the hallways, locking the doors and turning off the lights. Secure perimeter is often used when the threat is outside the school. Students who are outside need to return inside and class continues as usual. Staff will bring students indoors and lock all doors to the outside.
"It's all about automating the processes and the workflows and taking the human element out of it. Having one button to press that puts everyone on the same page, from a technology and a process standpoint, is huge," Ferguson said.
Denver7 got a first hand look at other safety improvements including an environmental sensor.
It is installed in bathrooms and detects vaping and elevated volumes without recording any audio.
"It's not just notifying of chemicals in the air," Ferguson said. "If there's elevated voices, [school staff] can react accordingly if the trigger goes off. Security can get up here and diffuse whatever's going on."
Every card reader that allows access into the building was also replaced with high frequency readers.
"These take the new credentials that can't be replicable, and so people can't clone them. So, it's adding another layer of security to the school that they haven't had before," he said.
Across the campus, 28 new 360-degree cameras were also installed.
The cameras that face directions to show who may be walking onto campus were replaced.
"It's important in this location because this is where the community comes in," Ferguson said. "This is where kids come in. This is the main parking lot."
According to the company, the equipment and labor would usually be around $330,000.
"It would have taken us years to complete what Convergint is doing in one day. It would have taken us years, and not to mention the resources — the financial resources," said Englewood Schools Superintendent Joanne Polzin.
The volunteer crews also participated in beautification projects across the campus grounds, saving the school even more money.
"Now, we'll be able to spend other funds on our students as well as our hard-working staff. We're just incredibly grateful," Polzin said.
The donations were made through Convergint's STEP Up Program, which has helped 125 schools across the country upgrade their security systems, including 10 in Colorado.
If a school is interested in applying for the program, more information can be found here.
