Beech Grove City Schools
Beech Grove City Schools serves 2,700 students across five buildings in the city of Beech Grove. As one of only a few small municipalities in Marion County which is dominated by the city of Indianapolis, the district is part of a tight-knit community.
The city of roughly 15,000 rests to the southeast of downtown Indianapolis near the intersection of interstates 65 and 465.
The district boasts a robust curriculum including well-established programs like its FFA chapter, performing arts programs and competitive athletics, like the High School Boys’ Basketball Team, which won the 3A State Championship in 2022.
Built on five core values of Belonging, Community, Growth, Respect and Learning, the district strives to provide the best possible educational opportunities for its students. Former Beech Grove students feel the same, as they make up 20% of the district’s faculty.
The district has made significant investments in its facilities in recent years to replace aging infrastructure and bolster their commitment to providing the best possible educational facilities for its students.
When these projects were being planned, updating the district’s outdated public address system was top-of-mind for Technology Director Tim Resler.
The Challenge
Prior to the renovations earlier this year, the district was operating on disparate, analog intercom and public address systems that did not have the functionality a modern school needs.
“Our old PA system was very dated, antiquated, basically operating on borrowed time,” said Resler. “Because it was so old, we worried that if anything failed, we might not be able to find parts.”
Like many other school districts across the country, Beech Grove also faced budget constraints, and for both Resler and Tech Electronics, it was important to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.
"We want to be conscious with taxpayer money, and we want to be able to reuse as much as we can, and then we start building the features."
The district had previously worked with Tech to install a CareHawk CH1000X intercom system at Hornet Park Elementary. The CH1000X is an analog intercom system that can interface with IP systems, and Hutson said it laid the foundation for further expansion in the district.
The Process
To start, Hutson and Project Foreman Jason Arnold had to review the existing infrastructure within the schools to plan what could be reused in the new system.
“We wanted to try to make use of anything existing to try and save some budget,” said Hutson. “And we were looking at the whole district, this wasn’t just one building, this was a district-wide solution.”
After the team knew what could be repurposed, they had to determine how many IP addresses would be needed for the new system.
They planned to install four CH2000 IP Intercoms, which would each require an IP address, along with three for each corresponding 32 module.
The previous analog system was operating off of a single IP address, representing a significant expansion, but Anrold worked to communicate with the district to install a cost-effective and scalable system that would meet their needs.
"We set it all up in our fab shop and were able to test that everything talked to each other before we put it on site and implemented the pieces. Once we got on site it was a two-day process, rip the old (system) out, ohm out all the cables, throw the new one in, and test."
The Solution
The district’s new intercom system is made up of one CH1000X analog intercom at Hornet Park Elementary, while the remaining buildings were fitted with CH2000 IP intercoms.
Overall, the CareHawk platform provides a more user-friendly experience and enhanced capabilities like paging and lockdowns district-wide.
“The CH2000 is an IP intercom that is backwards compatible with analog, so not only can it handle the IP speakers in the future, but it also works with the systems and the analog infrastructure they already have,” said Hutson.
The district is also working to implement CareHawk’s Spotlight platform, allowing them to use a single interface to view their entire district-wide intercom system.
It also enables staff to make streamlined changes to calendars and bell schedules without the need for a service call.
“With the old system, we weren’t able to do any updates or adjustments on our own,” said Resler. “So now we’re able to easily make changes to the bell schedule or come up with bell schedules that we didn’t even use prior.”
Thanks to the backwards compatibility available with the CH2000 platform, Tech was also able to use a significant portion of the existing infrastructure like cabling and speakers. This allowed for an accelerated project timeline adn meaningful savings for the district.
"Using our existing analog speakers to save us money was a great benefit and savings for us."
Moving forward, Tech and the district hope to continue to modernize their existing system, taking full advantage of the Spotlight platform. With a fully interconnected system, administrators can view and activate every device in the district from one platform.
Arnold expressed his excitement at the potential the fully realized system would have, and said he looked forward to continuing to work with the district.
“We were able to put a system in very building so they can grow, they now have a platform they can expand and build on into the future,” said Hutson.
For more information about how IP intercom and communications technology can modernize your campus, contact us for more information.
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