Securing a Single Point of Entry for a Macomb County School District

The Challenge

A Macomb County public district came to us with a problem common to schools built decades ago: too many ways in, and no good way to control them. Each building had multiple unlocked or propped-open doors during the day, staff still carried physical keys that had been copied many times over the years, and the only way to lock the building in an emergency was to send someone around with a key. Front offices couldn't see who was at a door before it opened, and there was no record of who entered a building or when.

The district's safety committee wanted three things: a true single, secured point of entry at each building, the ability to lock down every door across the district in seconds, and a system they could fund through a bond and phase over time without disrupting the school year.

The Solution

We started with a walk-through of every building, mapping doors, entries, and the daily flow of students and staff. The plan established one secured main entrance per building, each fitted with a video intercom so office staff can see and speak with any visitor and release the door remotely — while every other exterior door stays locked during school hours.

We installed modern access control on the priority doors across all six buildings, replacing copied keys with badge and mobile credentials tied to each staff member. Every door event is now logged to a person and a time, a lost credential is deactivated in seconds instead of triggering a re-key, and administrators can trigger a full district-wide or single-building lockdown from a button or mobile device. We tied cameras into the same system so an after-hours door event flags the nearest camera. Every cable was run and terminated by our own licensed W-2 technicians — background-checked, and never subcontractors — and we phased the work over summer break so no building was disrupted mid-year.

The Result

Every building now has a true single, secured point of entry with visitor screening, and the district can lock down instantly instead of scrambling with keys. Administrators have a clear, accountable record of who entered each building and when, and the copied-key problem is gone for good — staffing changes no longer mean re-keying a building.

Just as important, the system fit the district's bond funding and was installed building-by-building over a single summer, so it was fully in place before students returned. What had been a patchwork of propped doors and unaccountable keys became a system the safety committee could stand behind.

Why Michigan Security Systems

This project is a textbook example of why we design school systems around how a building actually runs rather than selling a package. The plan followed the district's real daily flow, the equipment was NDAA-compliant and bond-appropriate, and because our own technicians handled every building start to finish — never subcontractors — there was one accountable, background-checked team working around students. It's the same approach behind our school security systems and access control across Michigan.