Adelaide Botanic High School

George Dunleavy - Strategic Manager of Security and Emergency Management for the Department for Education, explains the challenges, and how they were addressed with the SALTO Gallagher integration, one of the most advanced and innovative electronic security partnerships on the market.

“As a new school, starting with just year 8 and 9 students, we were looking at considerable growth over the coming years, as we increase to our predicted full complement of 1250 students. That potentially also means changes in the way the school operates. So first and foremost, we had to make sure that our access control system didn’t limit us in any way for future expansion.

One of our first decisions was for a completely keyless solution”, he goes on, “as we knew that keys would certainly limit any future expansion plans.”

Security is, of course, a major concern for schools - and Adelaide Botanic High School wanted to be able to secure individual classrooms, with ‘privacy doors’ that could be locked from the inside in case of an intruder.

It was important to continue the design aesthetic throughout the interior, including the door furniture. “We were looking for an access control solution that gave us the right combination of functionality and good looks”, says George.

“Integration was an essential requirement”, says George. “We needed to be able to manage a wide range of security concerns through a common platform, whilst leveraging the flexibility and capabilities afforded by the SALTO access control system. SALTO has been the department’s preferred wireless access control solution for a number of years and the fact that SALTO integrates into the Gallagher head end system was vital for us.”

The Department also wanted to avoid students having to carry multiple cards, and needed an access control system that could use their existing MiFare EV1 student cards.

The Department selected SALTO for 123 internal doors in the school, including classrooms, server rooms, staff rooms, meeting rooms, sports facilities, and performance spaces. “We selected the XS4 One wireless BLE lock”, says George, “with 115 doors having online locks and the rest using SALTO Virtual Network (Salto SVN), with data-on-card.”

“Access can easily be tailored for each individual user”, says George. “For example we have some students in wheelchairs, and we can give them lift access. Senior students might have additional access rights, say, outside normal hours. If an external sports club hires out the gym, we can allow them to come in only on certain days and times.”

In the case of an emergency that requires lockdown, staff or students can use an electronic button on the rear of the door to lock themselves in. 

The internal doors are managed via SALTO’s ProAccess SPACE software, which integrates seamlessly with the Gallagher head end system. ProAccess SPACE currently runs on a server in the school, but in 2021 will move to a cloud-based system. “Because the Department has a number of schools running on SALTO, it makes sense to have a centralised SPACE hub as a single management point.”

Adelaide Botanic High School’s security system is a success. The whole process, from concept to implementation, provided South Australia’s Department for Education with important learnings and a solid foundation to design the next batch of public schools in the State, which are already underway.