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Meade County School District is setting a new safety precedent across the state of Kentucky  — and the Monument Brandenburg site is helping make it possible. As a leader in safety across the community, Monument was first in mind for Meade County to help them take a big step toward a more secure learning environment. And now, they can say they are a trailblazer as the first in the Commonwealth to implement top-of-the-line incident response technology into its schools. 

“We really want to elevate the culture of safety,” Dr. Mark Martin, Superintendent of Meade County Schools, explained. “We’ve completed a few initiatives over the recent years, from adding door hardwares and safety vestibules to doubling our SRO fleet for safety officers, drug dog searches in collaboration with our sheriff's department, so this is really that next step. And when it comes to safety, Monument is who comes to mind. It’s who they are. We share a long history of collaboration, so our first thought was how do we get them involved?”

Based out of Atlanta, Georgia, Centegix Safety Platform is used in city governments, hospitals, and other public facilities all across the East coast, including over 465 school districts. The technology provides crisis response solutions through a push button on employee badges. The type of response is dictated by the number of times the button is pressed. For example, three pushes tells school officials that there is a medical or everyday emergency. Eight to nine pushes notifies everyone on the school’s property, as well as local dispatch, of a trespasser on campus.

“There are four specific features,” Dr. Martin shared. “1. If the strobe is red, it indicates a lock down. And it will send off an alarm throughout the school. 2. Yellow means lock in. Everyone is told to get inside and doors are locked to keep potential threats out. 3. Blue indicates shelter in place in the case of severe weather. And 4. Green means go — or get out of the building — if a bomb threat is received. The appropriate response team is notified instantly through the app on their phone and desktops with all other employees notified via the intercom system aligned with the strobes throughout the school.”

The Centegix technology not only indicates who is pushing the button and where on campus the alert was sent within a couple of feet, but also other purposeful data regarding how long the response took, how it was handled, and more to help guide improvements in the future. With its ease of use and data capabilities, the technology helps eliminate manual errors for quicker and more successful outcomes.

Since the 90-day installation began in Meade County schools this past October, every building is now equipped with the required strobe lights and cameras inside and out, and soon to follow will be a two-week staff and faculty training and demos later this month.

Monument is joined by fellow sponsors, Nucor Steel Brandenburg and Rick Kueber and Family, in contributing a total of $63,000 annually for the next five years to fund the Centegix Safety Partnership. “And we want to make their contributions known,” Dr. Martin shared. “We've invested in signage and distinct messaging to display at sporting events, PTA functions, graduations, etc., to let the public know that this campus is secure because of partners like Monument.”

For Monument, the partnership perfectly exemplifies the level of safety we pride ourselves for our own employees — and their families. With many team members’ children and loved ones within the Meade County school system, the impact is felt at every level. “Meade County Schools are part of our Monument family in every way, and our partnerships are an important opportunity for us to lead by example throughout the community,” Tonya Jeffries, HR Manager at Monument Brandenburg, explained.

“We believe that when safety leads, success follows,” Dr. Martin added. “And we know better than anyone that Monument shares that same philosophy. They’ve created a culture of safety that has touched so many aspects of our community and schools. As we continue to invest our time and leadership into ensuring this technology is working, and share our knowledge throughout local industries, we’re grateful to have Monument as our partner in setting this new precedent for school safety in Kentucky and beyond.”