by Brianna Crandall — April 16, 2014—Motorola Solutions, provider of mission-critical communication solutions and services for enterprise and government customers, was recently selected by Chardon Area Schools in Ohio to provide its SchoolSAFE Communications solution for nine schools and the district’s administration office. The solution provides school district staff with an instantaneous link to first responders in the event of an emergency. Officials from Motorola and SchoolSAFE conducted interoperable radio training with Chardon Schools’ staff and local public safety officials to review communications procedures and best practices in incident control.
The SchoolSAFE Communications software enables interoperable radio communications between school personnel and first responders, and is in compliance with guidelines set by the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The area schools’ new system will automatically link the Motorola ASTRO25 and MOTOTRBO radios used by school personnel with 9-1-1 dispatch center and public safety radios used by local and state first responders on their Project 25 interoperable network.
This mission-critical communications link is intended to help Chardon Schools implement comprehensive school safety planning and training, along with a quicker and more efficient response by school safety personnel to all emergencies.
Key facts of the SchoolSAFE project:
- Approximately 250 radios equipped with the SchoolSAFE Communications solution have been provided to personnel at 10 Chardon Area Schools. Additionally, the system will allow individual schools to communicate with each other for inter-school and district-wide interoperable radio communications.
- This level of communications interoperability with local first responders enables Chardon Area Schools to meet and exceed current school safety requirements.
- The State of Ohio uses the statewide MARCS public safety radio system, developed by Motorola, for interoperable communications throughout the state. In collaboration with Motorola, MARCS developed what is known as the MARCS In-School Radio System providing mission-critical voice and data services to over 700 user agencies. More than 40,000 subscribers benefit with highly reliable, shared communications services from the 218 radio tower sites deployed statewide.
Although not officially linked with this installation, a March 17 article in Security Director News notes that the 3,200-student school district north of Cleveland experienced a tragedy two years ago when an alternative school student shot and killed three students and injured three others in the high school cafeteria.
