Margaret Brent Middle School located in Mechanicsville, Maryland is part of the St. Mary’s County Public School System. The Middle School has over 900 students in grades 6-8 with a vision to be a place where all students and staff are valued for their commitment and contributions to the success of the school community. The mission of Margaret Brent Middle School is to provide the skills and strategies for academic and social success to a diverse population.

Challenges

St. Mary’s County Public Schools serves approximately 18,000 students across 28 sites and many of the county’s school facilities are over 30 years old with aging infrastructure. In 2019 the district started replacing failing Public Address and Intercom Systems with Telecor’s Channel Partner, Layer One Technology Solutions. Margaret Brent Middle School is the eighth site Layer One has completed for the district.

Prior to the upgrade project, the school’s intercom system was unreliable and a safety concern due to areas that were not functioning properly. Each classroom needed the ability to send and receive routine and emergency messages. Digital displays were required to supplement messaging in noisy areas and to ensure ADA compliance. Lockdown in a crisis needed to be a seamless process.

Layer One is happy to be a part of providing the latest and greatest technology to ensure the safety and security of the children and staff of St. Mary’s County Schools.
– Jason Thompson, President, Layer One

Solution

Layer One used Telecor’s eSeries Public Address and Intercom solution to provide the latest in Ethernet-based communication technology to Margaret Brent Middle School. eSeries provides intercom, public address, music broadcast, digitally-stored announcements, a state-of-the-art graphical user interface and synchronized clock system distributed over the Middle School’s LAN. Each classroom has a scrolling display for routine and emergency messages and date/time of day. The display is fully integrated with the classroom call station including two-way talkback from the companion loud speaker.

The administration area has point and click management of the entire solution with the PC-based Visual Console. Telecor’s Master Clock and Message Host with mobile, anywhere access provides on and off-site management of operations for quick changes and proactive maintenance notifications. And, Layer One ensured that a dedicated Lockdown Button was included in the school office for immediate lockdown notification.

Results

Layer One’s turnkey solution for Margaret Brent Middle School ensures that the students and staff will seamlessly receive routine and emergency messaging both audibly and visibly. Teachers are assured they can quickly connect with administration and have two-way communication.

In the event of a crisis requiring lockdown, the central lockdown button takes away the guesswork and signals the eSeries public address system to invoke emergency messaging protocols. On and off-site management makes it easy for school personnel to initiate changes and emergency procedures if needed.

Layer One is a solutions-based company headquartered in the National Capitol Area and is focused on providing innovative IT Infrastructure services for Public and Private sector customers.

Layer One provides a complete array of infrastructure related services for Data, Voice, Video, Security and Electrical systems. Our experienced staff applies the latest in industry knowledge and technology when providing Design, Engineering, Construction, and Maintenance of these systems. This allows us to produce solutions for our customers that meet the highest industry standards. Our staff consists of a group of highly skilled and certified industry professionals. Layer One maintains a RCDD on staff in addition to other IT infrastructure industry certified professionals.

For over 45 years Telecor has established itself internationally as a provider and leader of quality intercom, paging, clock, mass notification and security communication products and systems. With thousands of systems installed across the United States and worldwide, Telecor offers complete process manufacturing – from the concept and design stages, through to a worldwide network of certified trained distributors in the Education, Healthcare, Security and Commercial markets.