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St. John’s College High School rolls out Brivo OnSite SE™ to meet specific demands

Brivo Systems, LLC, the leader in web applications for access control and security systems, has announced that St. John's College High School in Washington, DC, has deployed the Brivo OnSite SE access control system in key locations throughout their 27-acre campus.  eVigilant of Arlington, VA, specified and installed the Brivo system.

St. John's, an independent school with 1,100 students and 150 staff, formerly used a standard lock and key system.  The SJC Administration sought improved access technology to provide school administrators with maximum flexibility.  eVigilant introduced Tony Colvin, Director of Facilities, and Mel Colvin, Director of Technology, to Brivo's OnSite SE, which provides all of the advanced benefits of Brivo functionality and ease of use.  The system offers the school on-site data storage control, as opposed to the web-hosting option the company also offers.

"We knew we wanted a web-based system," said Mel Colvin.  "I didn't want to hassle with making sure all the computers had the right software and the right versions of software. The Brivo system made it easy."

"We opted for a phased installation so we installed Brivo in our athletic facility to see how it functioned and to gain a comfort level with it," said Tony Colvin.  "The school wanted to be able to lock up the entire building and then funnel traffic through specific doorways while sensors on all other doors would monitor closed or open status.  Over the course of the year we have upwards of 15 different athletic programs using the building for different periods, all with different coaching staff.  We needed a system that could easily manage all those cards and schedules, control access, and track access in the facility.  With the old system, if a student got a hold of a key that presented a potential problem - now we just cancel the missing access card."

The Brivo OnSite SE system gives SJC greatly improved access control and access visibility and reporting, and provides many other benefits as well.  The athletic director can control doors and remotely grant access to outside groups renting the facility, as well as making sure at the end of each day that the building is fully secure - all without leaving his office.  The Brivo system also enables SJC to schedule an open time for the building, as well as to lock the building once everyone is inside in the morning.  Deliveries are buzzed in.  In the event of an emergency, St. John's has also installed a single-button "lock-down" for the entire facility.

In addition to the athletic building, Brivo is now installed in the main academic building, the administrative offices, and the Business Manager's suite.  At present, a fourth location is being installed to control cafeteria access.  Throughout the process, SJC was pleased to learn that they were not limited by the Brivo system; they just needed to figure out how to maximize system functionality.

As the access control management plan unfolds, SJC intends to funnel people in and out of the building through two access points in the front and back of the main building.  Like the athletic facility, the goal is to know who is coming and going and when.  St. John's allows 24/7 access.  With the previous lock and key system, when someone opened a door with a key, it generally stayed unlocked, making the building vulnerable.  With Brivo, this is no longer a worry.

System scalability and the ability to expand the system have been real advantages for St. John's.  According to school administrators, they asked themselves this question: is the technology going to work the way we want it to work?  Of all the systems evaluated, only Brivo fit that important criterion.