As students and teachers celebrate the end of the school year, facility managers prepare for possible security upgrades during summer break. Adams Rite, Alarm Controls and ASSA ABLOY Electronic Security Hardware (HES, Securitron) offer the broadest range of access control retrofit products to meet the challenges facing K-12 facility managers including time and budget.
Building an ideal learning environment requires a careful balance of security and safety. ASSA ABLOY offers opening solutions that address both code requirements and student needs that drive facility design.
Perimeter – Gate and fence access control solutions are the first line of defense to prevent unauthorized personnel from penetrating a school campus. Many education facilities, especially elementary schools, have outdoor areas where students congregate for recess and other activities. Perimeter security products should be outdoor rated to ensure that extreme weather conditions won’t affect the reliability of the access control solution. Certain products, such as some weatherproof electromagnetic locks, electric strikes and gate locks certified for outdoor use, are designed to leverage the existing hardware to make retrofit upgrades easy and efficient.
Exterior Doors – From service entries to front office vestibules, education facilities have a variety of exterior openings, each with specific application requirements. All exit doors maintain building security while allowing for free egress from the inside. Doors with exit devices or “panic bars” tend to have the highest traffic. They must also meet fire and life safety codes, where applicable, and comply with ADA requirements. Access control can easily be scaled from mechanical devices to hardwired or wireless devices based upon application, local codes and budgets. Electric strikes, electrified deadlatches and exit devices can easily be tied into existing access control systems at education facilities to ensure that every opening within the building envelope is secured and monitored on the same security system.
Interior Doors – An education facility’s interior design can vary depending on where a space is located within the building and its use. Administrative offices often utilize all glass installations to allow administrators to monitor students and activity while many classrooms utilize hollow metal or wood doors to minimize student distraction. Doors and frames are the backbone of any security solution. Since all of the hardware is mounted on, mortised into or connected to either the door or frame, it is extremely important the proper configuration is determined from the beginning.
Surface mounted digital glass door locks and wireless readers offer elegant, flexible keyless retrofit access control for all-glass solutions while electromagnetic locks and electric strikes enhance access control on hollow metal, wood and aluminum doors while keeping costs in line.
Cabinet Doors and Drawers – From administrative offices and teacher resources to nurse and health supplies, wired, wireless and stand-alone cabinet locks offer audit trail capabilities and accountability for sensitive data, pharmaceuticals and personal belongings.
Emergency Situations – When an emergency happens, seconds matter. School administrators and staff members need a fast, secure way to lock down everything from entire buildings to individual classrooms. Lockdown buttons and monitoring stations help enhance new and existing access control systems and provide a line of defense quickly.
Power – Selecting an incorrectly sized power supply can increase upfront purchase and installation costs as well as future costs, like energy usage. Therefore, facilities managers should have the ability to select the power supply that appropriately fits the needs of the specific application. By offering a wide range of power supplies, schools are able to implement the access control solutions needed while maintaining budgets both in the short and long terms.
ASSA ABLOY provides a breadth of retrofit access control solutions to meet the needs of any K-12 facility’s openings from gates and doors to cabinets and drawers including:
· Adams Rite Exit Devices, Electrified Deadlatches and Trim
· Alarm Controls Custom K-12 Solutions
· HES Electric Strikes and Cabinet Locks
· Securitron Electromagnetic Locks, Gate Locks and Power Supplies
