http://www.plascotrac.com Latest headlines from PlascoTrac http://www.plascotrac.comblog/customer-stories/Unique-student-tracking-tools.html Right around this time of the year many PlascoTrac customers start thinking about new uses for their PlascoTrac software. Most schools start out with basic behavior management such as tardy tracking on the negative side, or tracking PBIS points for students being on time and wearing their student IDs on the positive. Some schools take it a step further by using PlascoTrac for event tracking at school dances and sporting events. But over time, many of our schools start finding even more new and innovative ways to use PlascoTrac to meet their specific student tracking needs.Oak Park and River Forest High School - Oak Park, ILAt Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF) in the West suburbs of Chicago, the administrative team uses PlascoTrac not only for student behavior management and event tracking, but also to manage their modified closed campus lunch program. The junior and senior students at OPRF are allowed off-campus for lunch if they meet certain criteria. Students that are not currently failing any classes, have not had any major disciplinary infractions, and have not reached a threshold for tardiness and/or unexcused absences, are allowed off campus for lunch. The OPRF staff scans students as they leave to ensure that the students are eligible and that it is their current lunch hour. The administration updates the list of students that are eligible once a week from a simple import into PlascoTracs event module.West Aurora High School - Aurora, ILWest Aurora High Schools security staff has also found a unique way to utilize the PlascoTrac software. The security staff at West Aurora High noticed that staff members were frequently propping both interior and exterior doors open for a variety of reasons. Not having these doors closed and locked caused a breach in the security of the building. So as a solution, West Aurora security put barcodes on each door and now does periodic door sweeps throughout the day. They have created three Trac codes within PlascoTrac to select from and scan as they check a door. The three codes are closed and locked, closed and unlocked, and door ajar. The security team is able to run reports after the sweeps that allow them to see which doors are not secured and at what time of day. This has allowed the security team to make the building more secure and hold staff members accountable throughout the building.Making the most of an investmentWhether a school is trying to improve tardiness, automate positive behavior initiatives, track events on and off campus, alleviate some of the administration time involved in tracking such behavior, or has a unique purpose for the software, PlascoTrac may be the answer. If your school has an idea on a new use for PlascoTrac, or just an issue that you need help resolving, please feel free to contact our team to try and help find a solution. http://www.plascotrac.comblog/the-plascotrac-chronicles/journey_to_alaska.html PlascoTrac Support Specialist, Patrick Maynes, documents his journey to Alaska for customer installs and training.In December I had an opportunity to implement PlascoTrac at several schools in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (Mat-Su) in Alaska. Yes, ALASKA! As in The Last Frontier and Sarah Palin, Alaska.Pack your bags. You\'re going to Alaska.Now, for those of you who may not know, we PlascoTrac support specialists work out of PlascoTracs home office in Miami, Florida. Thats right, warm and sunny Miami, Florida. I think you understand where Im going hereI arrived in Anchorage on Saturday, a few days early, to properly prepare for a week of installation and training. I left Fort Lauderdale International Airport where it was 79 at 5AM EST and arrived to a brisk 6 at Anchorage International Airport at 4PM AKST. A nice layer of white blanked the city from the snowfall a few days prior. When I picked up my 4WD rental car (a requirement for driving on ice), the associate made it very clear and required that I sign a section of the rental agreement to acknowledge the No fish in the rental vehicle policy.Okay, I said to myself. If there are any fish hitchhiking on the side of the road in Alaska, dont stop got it. I also realized that leaving the state in a rental means leaving the country. This was going to be a hoot!Preparation and Planning.For each onsite training PlascoTrac creates an individualized set of training documents that focus on the items outlined in the Project Plan. Sunday morning I dropped off Mat-Su Districts custom training docs to the FedEx Office for printing and binding. I took advantage of the 6 hours required to complete the work order and drove south of Anchorage, through the Kenai Peninsula via highway A1. Things we never get to see.WOW what beautiful scenery from sea level up through the snow painted mountains and frozen roads towards Cooper Landing and an area called Moose Pass. I wish I had more time to take it all in, but alas, with the icy winding roads testing my driving skills and the FedEx print job awaiting my attention back in Anchorage, it was time to head back.Mat-Su Borough is located 45 minutes north of Anchorage via highway A1 or Glenn Highway. The Mat-Su Valley is known for the size of their vegetables that grow here during the long summer days. I decided to take Old Glenn Highway into Mat-Su Valley. This route takes you further east through Butte and returns to A1 in Palmer, where the Mat-Su school board offices are located. The quaint and picturesque roads on Old Glenn Highway as it carved through the mountains made the road less traveled well worth the diversion. From Palmer, it was west to my hotel in Wasilla on Lucile Lake. [Fun Fact: I was told I was only a few blocks from Sarah Palins house!]Getting down to business.On Monday morning it was time for business. My day started with a meeting with the school board for an overview. I have worked with a lot of great IT people in my 12 years of experience, but these folks were exceptional in their efficiency and professionalism. After the district office, it was on to Palmer High and Valley Pathways High School. Both schools are already established users of PlascoTrac and were just transitioning to the district so our training mainly focused on concise questions from the end users.I went to Palmer Middle School to get an early start on installing the PlascoTrac Kiosk. While not widely known, the PlascoTrac Kiosk allows students to generate a pass to class when they are late without interrupting office personnel, similar to the way we all check-in to a flight at the airportunattended, fast, simple. The kiosk can also be used to allow students to enter and exit events. At Palmer Middle, the station was affectionately named the Moose Pass Kiosk.Over the next several days I continued my installations and trainings as well as conversations with innovative customers like the folks at Wasilla Middle. The Principal and staff had a slew of new approaches to using PlascoTrac that I was able to share with others throughout the week.Thank you Alaska!As much as I enjoyed the Alaska area, once the 50-70 MPH wind gusts began rocketing through the Palmer Valley, I knew it was time to head back to the warmth of South Florida. I enjoyed the opportunity to visit Alaska and the wonderful folks in the Mat-Su School District. http://www.plascotrac.comblog/industry-news/school-security-visitor-management.html The time is a little after 8am on a typical school day and the hallways are clear and quiet. In the classrooms, your teachers are steady discussing new subject matter as your students listen and learn at their desks. In the office, administrators are working diligently to complete their daily tasks.At this very moment, how secure is your school campus from an unauthorized visitor?School safety and visitor management have been hot topics for years. But since the tragedy that took place in Connecticut late last year, the spike in searches for effective solutions for keeping schools safe and tracking on-campus visitors have, not surprisingly, gone through the roof. What we find surprising is not as many schools as you might think actually have a sound visitor policy in place. Those that do seldom have more than a small directional sign that courteously [yet ineffectively] requests campus visitors go the office where they sign a logbook and are (sometimes) presented with a handwritten badge to wear.At PlascoTrac, our regional sales managers visit hundreds of schools a year. That should mean hundreds of guarded doors, ID scans, and specific visitor badges. But in reality, feedback from our team indicates that we find that only about 30% of schools really follow a valid and strict visitor check-in procedure (a procedure where schools actually ask for your ID, scan it, and present you with a visitor badge). Another 30% have you voluntarily sign a logbook, and most shockingly, 40% dont do anything at all.So what are some best practices when it comes to securing your school and knowing exactly who is visiting on your campus? Check out the following safe school tips and consider the best way you can carry out these ideas at your school.1) Implement a Strict Visitor PolicyThe first step in securing your school is implementing a procedure that every visitor who walks through your door has to follow. Develop that policy based on your schools set up and unique situation, and then stick with it. One of our customers, Harry D. Jacobs High School in Algonquin, IL, has a very strict and effective visitor policy:We buzz visitors into the building and monitor the cameras as they come in. They then have to go straight to the main office to sign in, get scanned, and receive a visitor pass from the system. says Regan Smith, a Supervisor at Jacobs H.S.It would be ideal to have a single entrance for visitors to come in and out throughout the day. This door should be guarded by a staff person who stands inside the door ready to check in visitors. Take a cue from Edwin G. Foreman High School, in Chicago where everyone is stopped at the door and you will not get in without a valid photo ID:Visitors must have a photo ID and are liable to be searched, explains Mr. McClenty Robinson, the Assistant Principal at Foreman. They are asked to sign in right there at the door with security.If you have a gate and can take it a step further, keep it locked during slow hours and manned to stop visitors before getting into the school. For more visitor management tips, read about the extra security steps being taken by this school district in Pennsylvania. (full article)2) Be Prepared For The ComplaintsBe prepared for visitors who may not like this more strict policy. Some will complain the policy is too extreme or makes the school like a prison, or that it takes too long, or that the office gets too crowded, or any number of objections. Make sure to take the time to explain to them that your policy is in place to protect everyone, including them.A few parents might complain [about the extra security measures], says Smith. But most are appreciative that we are going through all this. We help them understand that its all to keep their kids safe.3) Obtain a Visitor Management SystemAfter you have established a procedure, the next step is procuring a system to help you sign in and track every visitor on your campus. Gone should be the days when it is sufficient to have everyone sign a logbook and then receive a generic or handwritten badge. A visitor management system will allow you to scan your visitors ID, classify visitor type, capture and store a photo, enter the location he or she is allowed to visit, and print a temporary badge that contains all of these details. At the same time, you can also check against the registered sex offender database and/or set up custom watch lists to flag unwanted visitors.PlascoTrac offers a visitor management solution that gives you an extra level of security to keep your students and faculty safe. Manage who is coming on and off your campus at any given time with PlascoTrac Visitor. Additional information on PlascoTrac Visitor designed specifically for K-12 Schools.With a Visitor Management system like PlascoTrac, the badge prints with the date, time, picture, destination and who they are here to see and we can keep a record of this information, says Robinson.He feels the issue with generic visitor badges is you can get them anywhere. Some one could actually be walking around with a fake badge that he or she carried in. At any point during the day every visitor should have been tracked in the system and be wearing a badge. If someone is walking around your school that you dont recognize or they arent wearing a visitor badge, you know to question that person and ask him or her to check in with security or at the office.Keeping the students and staff at your school safe is no doubt a top priority. We hope the tips shared here have been helpful to you, now please share with us. What is your school or districts visitor management policy? Let us know in the comments section below.For additional resources and tips, check out the following articles regarding school security from American School University.- School Security: Ensuring Access Control- Strategies for Success: Door/Entry Systems for School Security http://www.plascotrac.comblog/customer-stories/stjames_high_school.html Another PlascoTrac customer achieves great results!St. James High School of Horry County School District in South Carolina implemented PlascoTrac in September 2012. Over the last 10 weeks, the number of unexcused tardies has dropped by nearly 75%. The PlascoTrac trend report below shows a week-by-week progression. We\'re still trying to figure out what happened on week 45, but the trend line sure is impressive.10 Week Trend Report - Trac Code: Unexcused Tardy(9/24/12 - 11/29/12)St. James High School serves a student body of approximately 1,300 students in grades 9 through 12.