Each of Denmark’s 550 individual Free Schools shares a common ethos: parents and students participate together in activities outside school hours, including weekends. It’s excellent for building a school community. Not so easy for managing security, when issuing and tracking keys becomes a 7-day task every week. The Vejle Friskole turned to SMARTair® wireless access control for a solution.
Previously, key management ate up “a very long time, approximately 5 hours a week,” explains Henrik Kækel, Technical Service Officer at Vejle Friskole.
Secure wireless electronic locks, already proven in schools across Europe, were the answer. Vejle Friskole’s mechanical keys have been replaced by a SMARTair® access control system. Over 80 doors and cabinets around the school are secured with SMARTair® wireless devices. Even at a historic property like Vejle Friskole, battery-powered SMARTair® devices are easy and unobtrusive to retrofit.
Now approximately 250 students, teachers and parents each carry their own key fob, programmed with individual access permissions. Because the SMARTair® system portfolio has locking devices tailored to different kinds of openings, everyone at the Friskole opens the right doors and cabinets with a single fob. There’s no more need for the school to distribute separate keys for student or staff lockers, for example.
Time-saving key management
"It was really bad because we had big problems with keys that were lost,” says Henrik Kækel. “There was a lot of work in key administration.” SMARTair® is easy for the school to manage. Today, Vejle Friskole staff spend around 5 minutes a week managing their access system. “It's incredibly easy to figure out... it takes 1 minute to code a student,” he adds. Even managing the leasing of school buildings for non-school events is simple and secure. School facilities staff issue fobs for the duration of the event, then cancel them immediately afterwards – with no concerns someone may have copied a physical key.
In addition to making everyday life easier and saving staff time and admin costs, SMARTair® has increased security. Using the intuitive SMARTair® software, they always have an overview of who has been at the school, and when. Audit trails are generated and monitored in real time using their SMARTair® system. And it's no disaster if a credential gets lost. Henrik adds: "Then we cancel the credential and issue a new one."
Vejle Friskole’s SMARTair® system is easy, fast and cost-effective to extend to new doors, cabinets and users — at the beginning of a new school year, or any time they choose.
To learn more about how SMARTair® can make your school safer — and save you time and expense — visit https://campaigns.assaabloyopeningsolutions.eu/smartair-schools