GISD board approves vendor for district electronic door access

The Graham ISD Board of Trustees Wednesday approved a vendor and budget amendment for the purchase and installation of an electronic door access system for the exterior doors of buildings throughout the district. This measure comes after GISD worked throughout the summer on required and recommended school safety actions tasked from the state and Texas Education Agency.

The GISD board approved allocating up to $250,000 in funds for a door access and key control systems as a safety measure for doors within the district Monday, Aug. 15. GISD Superintendent Sonny Cruse during that meeting said the door access system will cost the district approximately $4,000 per door, with $250,000 covering 50 doors throughout the district. Cruse said Wednesday, Sept. 14, upon revising the proposal, they had to increase the amount of doors outfitted with the electronic door access system.

“When we really dug into it and determined the needs and we really got to living in the system of thinking about what we would need and how (...) we have to manage the high school and the junior high on keeping all exterior doors locked (...), that number really went up to 74 sets of doors that we need to look at,” Cruse said.

Technology Director and Network Administrator Chris Rasile contacted vendors and Cruse presented the three proposals made to the district Wednesday. The vendors who made proposals were C&I, who proposed a quote of $299,265, PCnet, who proposed a quote of $347,784 and ADT, who proposed a quote of $286,094.

“We received proposals from C&I, which that’s the company that we currently do business with for our alarm systems and those sorts of things; PCNet, which we do business with them for networking and those sorts of things; and then ADT came and looked at things as well. When we did the scoring rubric, we ranked C&I first, ADT second and PCnet third,” Cruse said. “PCnet (...) we didn’t think was a viable solution, because it’s a web-based, web-hosted system and everyone that we’ve talked to that has those kinds of systems experiences lag in their video and lag sometimes in doors opening because it’s on the web. (...) The other two systems are hardwired to the exact door and quickly back to the main.”

Cruse said he recommended the board go with the quote from C&I due to the district’s previous business relationship with the company, the shorter lead time on the project and how they fit for the size of project the district wants. He said the cost would be over the amount due to additional cost estimates.

For the full story, see the Saturday, Sept. 17 edition of The Graham Leader.