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School safety: NMC R-1 pilots program going nationwide
NEW MADRID, Mo. - A company that is rolling out school safety programs across the nation has close ties to Southeast Missouri, particularly the New Madrid County R-1 School District.
Lauren Anne Cole, vice president of KIDaccount, who oversees sales and marketing, explained the program to R-1 staff members as they prepared for Friday’s start of classes.
“KIDaccount is a company that was founded based on the chaos at the car line. We started just as a company that accounted for kids but once we started accounting for the kids on campus, we realized that we could account for every soul on campus.” said Cole. “We were based on efficiency and we have become more of a safety company.”
Working with Keith Petty, the company’s CEO, and Robert Dickey, a software engineer, the trio developed the software for a real-time communication network for use in schools. Today, the system not only provides for signing students in and out but also tracking those on buses and even a way to account for students and staff during a disaster.
As Cole introduced the system, she explained the R-1 District was the first district to go districtwide with their products. The District’s staff have worked closely with the company, making suggestions on ways to improve KIDaccount.
“Every single bit of product development that we come up with comes from you. Our success, 100 percent, comes from every complaint you have, every little button you need, we put it into our software,” Cole said.
It was at the suggestion of the District, she said, that the company revamped the system to make it easier for individuals to check out multiple children. The system not only lists who can pick up a child but also who can’t pick up a child, she noted.
Following a lock-down at one of the District’s elementary schools, the company’s evacuation and roll-call system got it’s first test. Cole said working with school personnel, the system was fine-tuned and the company created a way teachers can use their personal devices to check-in through the accounting system as well as using their classroom’s desktop or laptop computers.
Cole said KIDaccount is now working with bus companies enabling them to integrate their systems.
Currently at 2:45 at the New Madrid R-1’s three elementary schools, information is relayed to the classrooms’ smartboards listing whether a student will be riding a bus or being picked up by an individual. Principals and school resource officers also have the information and bus drivers receive a written manifest with details such as who will be riding the bus and where a child will be getting off the bus.
“What we are trying to do is let teachers teach,” Cole said. “You guys have been dealing with notes and backpacks and text messages from parents, emails, phone calls. No more. All you do at the end of the day now is pull up your teacher board and it shows the status of your classroom. If there is a change, it is highlighted in red.”
Among the most recent innovations, she explained, is a new sign-in, sign out program where those who are entering the building, such as repairman or other individual, will be photographed with a Samsung Tablet when they enter the office. The photo will be printed out on an identification badge for the individual visitor.
According to Cole, as the badge is being created, the system will conduct a background check. It will be able to identify if the individual is a sex offender and will cross-reference files to determine if there is a warrant out for the person’s arrest. If there is a warrant out or a background issue, the system will alert the school’s security personnel.
Emphasizing KIDaccount is a safety system, Cole pointed out by keeping track of students, staff and visitors, if there is a disaster, it will be easier to find individuals.
Along this line and at the request of Dr. Sam Duncan, R-1 District superintendent, the company has developed an option should an earthquake or other natural disaster leave schools without power and without internet.
“What we have developed is what we are calling the New Madrid module and we are rolling it out here first, then across the nation,” Cole said. “It will be, basically, a briefcase that stays plugged in and has devices in it to create a Local Area Network, or a LAN, and can operate without power and without internet and will have all the latest and greatest data on all of your students, their whereabouts and for re-unification purposes who they should be picked up by. It will have the tools to do that from any location, whether the middle of a field or a church or anywhere.”
The company is continuing to work with others to provide more services, Cole said. They are also fine-tuning procedures.
Cole said KIDaccount is changing the hardware used to check-in and check-out students.
“We are going to be piloting that here,” she told the R-1 staff. “You will be the first school in the nation that is going to be able to do the photo ID card that will provide the background check. And we will be providing (the software) for free. Everything we do we are rolling it out here first and we are going to be doing it for free forever for New Madrid because Dr. Duncan and you have been so great.”
The District is paying for the hardware used for KIDaccount.
“We were able to get in on the front end. Budgeting is so important for us and they helped us out in that way,” Duncan said.
Duncan praised the company’s work.
“They listened a lot,” he said. “Anytime we came to them with a concern or if we said if we could do it this way, Keith would say all right, we will see if we can work with this or if can work with our bus provider or will see if we can work with this other provider so we can make you safer.”
During the lockdown at the elementary school, Duncan credited the technology with enabling officials to know the location of students and staff within five minutes.
“Every single child from the 4-year-old in preschool all the way up to through the fifth grader in elementary school was accounted for,” he said. “It is worth every penny because it keeps our folks safe.”
Duncan said the District is pleased to serve as a pilot school for KIDaccount.
“We are excited to be on the cutting edge,” he said. “This is all about keeping our kids safe and we are very proud of that. R-1 wants to continue to be a leader in school safety.”
The winner of the Small Business Development Center’s Innovation Award and named a “success story” by Southeast Missouri State University’s Economic Development Center, the Farmington, Mo., based KIDaccount is now being used in 17 states.