The Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District is located within minutes of downtown Fort Worth, in the northwest corner of Tarrant County, Texas. It includes 73 square miles of land in Saginaw, Eagle Mountain, Blue Mound and several housing districts in the City of Fort Worth, near Eagle Mountain Lake.
The Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District (EMS ISD) has grown quickly over the last few years. The district now serves more than 20,000 students across 30 school campuses.
The EMS ISD is committed to prioritising the safety and security of every student and staff member, along with visitors to the campuses. A major investment in safety has been the establishment of the EMS ISD Police Department
The mission of Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District is to foster a culture of excellence that instills a passion for a lifetime of continuous achievement in every student.
They focus on personalised education, caring campus leaders, a supportive administrative team, low employee turnover rate, and high-quality facilities – all in a small town environment.
Challenge
As the EMS ISD has grown, it became increasingly apparent that the existing two-way radio system was unable to meet its needs. Users were experiencing poor connectivity across the campus and an insufficient number of radio channels meant the network was often congested. Administrators, staff and school-based law enforcement officers were regularly unable to communicate with each other, often at crucial moments.
EMS ISD is committed to prioritising the safety and security across campus, so these communication challenges needed to be addressed urgently.
Solution
To improve communication and increase safety and security across the site, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw partnered with Stolz Telecom, a US based reseller of push-to-talk over cellular (PTToC also known as PoC and PTT) technologies developed by Mobile Tornado.
Unlike their traditional two-way radio system, PTToC uses cellular networks and WiFi, meaning that it enables reliable communication across the site. What’s more, where LTE signal is limited in some buildings on the campus, the PoC solution connects to the EMS ISD WiFi, enabling users to instantly communicate with each other at the touch of a button, regardless of location.
The EMS ISD recognised that PTToC technology would also alleviate the channel congestion they were experiencing on their two-way radio system. The PoC solution enables instant reliable communication between individuals and groups of up to 10,000 users.
Two of Stolz’s world-class dispatch consoles, which are also powered by Mobile Tornado, have also been installed on the campus. These make it possible for the dispatch controller to communicate with users across the campus as well as enabling users to be tracked, located and monitored in real time from a central location.
An SOS button enables users to send alerts in the event of an emergency, enabling them to be quickly located and help to be sent faster.
Results
Users have embraced the new solution. As well as improving communication across the campus, Stolz’s push-to-talk over cellular technology is increasing safety, enhancing decision making and keeping students, staff and campus visitors safer.
“We are delighted to have introduced Stolz’s push-to-talk over cellular application across The Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District. The support from Stolz Telecom during the rollout of the new technology has been exceptional. We wanted a reliable instant communication solution which was simple for our staff to use. They just push the button and it works. The central administration team and police department are very excited about the location tracking and SOS alerts”
Kirk Murdock, Senior Technology Officer, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD
