Cheltenham Township School District — Enhancing
Student Safety
Cheltenham Township School District in Pennsylvania
was looking for a way to enhance the educational environ-
ment and security for the school district’s 4,700 students
and more than 600 staff members. Cheltenham needed
to establish district-wide communications capabilities,
which included installing security with text messaging,
paging and conferencing and incorporating E911.
The district realized during security drills that even
more phones were needed as well. The additional phones
would be used in classrooms to ensure directions were
received from the principals or the superintendent. New
phones also allowed teachers and staff to communicate
during emergencies. To meet that need, “Alcatel-Lucent
provided inter-building communications solutions, secu-
rity and text messaging that could function across the new
infrastructure,” explains Gary Bixby, director of facilities
and support services for the district.
Cheltenham added an Alcatel-Lucent IP network and,
using the flexibility of IP, the district has integrated other
campus systems, both in and out of the classroom, for
unified messaging and communications across the voice
and data network and multiple devices.
Today, computers and phones work together to pro-
vide links among school facilities and local public safety
personnel, improving communications and security for
students and teachers. “The district has a long-term plan
to infuse technology into classrooms,” said Christopher W.
McGinley, superintendent of the district. “In addition to
advancing our educational goals, this new platform enables
the district to ensure the safety of our students and forge
stronger communications between teachers and parents,”
McGinley added.
Cheltenham looked at a variety of equipment providers,
but the choice was clear. “Alcatel-Lucent was the only
vendor who was willing to develop a solution unique to
[our] district needs,” says Bixby.
Using Alcatel-Lucent’s K-12 education district alert
application, Cheltenham is able to simultaneously send
every classroom in the district instant notifications regard-
ing weather, news, events or specific security concerns.
The Alcatel-Lucent security application broadcasts mes-
sages to alert administrators and teaching staff via phone or
computer. In the event of emergency or disaster, additional
information and instructions are delivered via voicemail
box or computer popup screen. Alcatel-Lucent’s education
applications developed specifically for K-12 strive to enable
school districts to share knowledge and information, deliver-
ing enhanced educational resources and security.
“All aspects of the new solution from Alcatel-Lucent
have demonstrated greater results than projected for our
day-to-day business and operations,” said Bixby. “We now
have more ‘open’ communication and the technology pro-
vides the district with tools [that] make us more productive,
efficient and successful … The impact is very significant!”
Bixby notes the new communications capabilities and its
effects were not possible with previous systems.
After implementing Alcatel-Lucent’s solutions,
Cheltenham now enjoys discreet messaging, parent access
to classroom information and fully-integrated communica-
tions including voice, data, system controls, security and
video conferencing. “Alcatel-Lucent met our specifications
without compromise,” according to Bixby. He added that
Alcatel-Lucent’s solutions provide “immeasurable benefits”
and “enhanced educational programs with no limitations”
to the district.
Ridley School District — Improving Communications,
Safety and Security
Ridley School District in southeastern Delaware
County, Pa. serves Ridley Township and the boroughs of
Ridley Park and Eddystone. The district contains more
than 5,900 students in one high school, one middle school
and seven elementary schools.
Ridley School District has invested in a variety of security
measures, both hardware and procedures, to help main-
tain a safe school environment for students. Next to daily
instruction, much of the district’s daily energy is focused on
keeping its children safe.