3xLOGIC, Inc. announced Hamilton School District, located in Hamilton, Montana, has installed 3xLOGIC’s Intelli-M Access, a browser-based access control management solution, at all the district’s buildings.

Judy Hake, maintenance and transportation director for the school district, led the transition to electronic access control. “Initially, we were looking at installing video surveillance,” she said. “Our supplier, Super Circuit, introduced us to the idea of integrating the new cameras with access control. We had a webinar with our administration and the school board made the commitment to this video and access control as a package to improve the overall safety of our facilities. At that time we were introduced to the Intelli-M access control system — we’ve been doing the installation ever since.”

Intelli-M access control is installed across five locations — the high school, middle, elementary and primary schools, as well as the administrative offices. To date, 174 doors have been fitted with security. Most are interior doors with Stanley hardware, and 30 are exterior doors. The district has been somewhat limited by budget, so each principal decided which doors were the priority for the first phase of installation.

“We were so glad to get away from cutting keys and losing keys; now we just add or delete a card,” Hake explained. “The principals are quite pleased with their ability to lock their schools down with the push of a single button.” The district maintenance team is in the process of adding another 50-60 doors to the system over the current summer months.

All exterior doors are on the 3xLOGIC system and each of those doors opens and closes on a pre-determined schedule. All interior doors, including classrooms, are managed by card access and local police and fire personnel have access cards as well. The district manages 339 teachers and staff on the system, divided into 229 separate groups, each with different access privileges in terms of doors, zones, time, and day.

The 3xLOGIC Intelli-M Access Professionalmanagement system was first installed in the summer of 2014 and expansion continues as budget and time are available. Hake and one of the district secretaries are the primary administrators for the system and both went to training provided by 3xLOGIC. Any incidents at any of the five buildings are usually investigated using video footage, but the access control system data has been used as back-up on a number of occasions.

“We’re very satisfied with the system as a whole; how much nicer and easier it is to re-issue cards, cancel cards,” Hake said. “That’s awesome and worth the investment alone. We’ve always had good tech support, the training was fantastic — it gave us great resources and if we can’t find what we need, we just give 3xLOGIC a call.”