NOTIFIER Fire Alarm Systems Protect

Rockwood School District

     Media Contact: Jayson.Kneen@Honeywell.com

Recognized for “Distinction in Performance with High Achievement” from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education – the highest accreditation possible from that organization - the Rockwood School District serves more than 22,000 students from parts of western St. Louis and northern Jefferson counties. As St. Louis County’s largest public school system, Rockwood School District encompasses 11 distinct communities. It is comprised of 19 elementary schools, six middle schools, four high schools, an Early Childhood Center, a Center for Creative Learning, and an Individualized Learning Center.

Despite the fact that the district’s students constantly outperform in comparison to state and national levels on all major tests, continuous improvement remains a vital element of the district’s overall philosophy. In fact, the district’s Web site proclaims, “As we pursue our goal to provide a world-class education to all of our students, we remain committed to continuous improvement and increased student achievement.” In other words, there’s no such thing as “good enough” as far as the Rockwood School District is concerned.

That same philosophy is illustrated in the actual facilities, according to David Blickenstaff, Rockwood School District’s director of facilities. “We’ve been switching out all of our old fire protection systems with replacements, at the rate of two or three systems per year throughout our 30 schools and six auxiliary buildings,” he said. “Our buildings had a variety of different systems, and in the interest of standardization and improved performance, we felt it best to update them in order to better protect our students, faculty, administration, and support staff.”

Keith Canova, Director of End User Business for Tech Electronics, has played an integral role in this continuous-improvement process. His company, which has broad experience designing and installing conventional and analog fire alarm systems in virtually every type of application, has been providing the specifications for Rockwood’s new fire protection systems for over a decade.

“We’ve been working with the Rockwood School District for about 15 years,” said Canova, whose father started Tech Electronics back in 1963. “We started out doing intercoms, paging systems, and security cameras, and had been providing these types of devices to the District for a long time.

“When David came to Rockwood 13 years ago, Tech Electronics was already a trusted vendor,” Canova continued. “We were working with him on an intercom project, and he pulled me aside and inquired about our fire alarm capabilities. He was impressed with the work we did with alarm installations in the past, so we began doing the specs for the District’s fire alarm systems. We’ve been doing it ever since.”

Several years ago, Rockwood passed a number of important bond issues, one of which involved a comprehensive upgrade of the District’s facilities. This would include extensive HVAC renovation and roofing, as well as updating all the fire alarm systems and bringing them up to current code. The fire alarm upgrade was particularly significant, given that the older panels required frequent – and costly – maintenance. What’s more, the “potpourri” of panels from different manufacturers did not translate to the most effective system possible.

“In the beginning we had every fire alarm panel known to man,” recalled Blickenstaff. “We decided that a broad-brush retrofit was the best route to take.”

The choice of which system to purchase was a relatively easy one. Tech Electronics began working with NOTIFIER—the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial fire alarm systems and part of Honeywell’s (NYSE: HON) Life Safety Group—20 years ago. Tech Electronics offers service and maintenance for all major fire protection systems, as well as design and installation services.

“We’ve worked with NOTIFIER on thousands of projects,” said Canova. “They perform very well, and our customers all seem quite happy with them. We really have no reason to spec any other system.”

Among its plethora of fire alarm systems, the Rockwood School District did have some NOTIFIER panels in its facilities; Rockwood’s first NOTIFIER panel was an AFP-1010. In addition, Tech Electronics had installed several other NOTIFIER panels, including an AFP-200 panel in 1998 in the District’s maintenance building, or “C” Shop as it is called. Still, given the magnitude of the decision, Blickenstaff had to be careful before deciding on NOTIFIER as the district standard. Based on a recommendation from Canova, as well as input from various in-house electricians, other outside contractors, and the District’s four local fire marshals, Rockwood elected to use NOTIFIER fire alarm panels and associated signaling devices as the district’s flagship vendor.

“We chose NOTIFIER panels and their associated signaling devices in the interest of district-wide standardization for fire alarm equipment,” explained Blickenstaff. “We’ve found the equipment to perform very well, and the installations are typically completed with minimal disruption to everyday business operations. Choosing NOTIFIER has given us all the benefits of standardization: ease of maintenance, easy access to parts, and easier monitoring. Plus, we’ve satisfied the fire marshals, we have happier electricians, and, most importantly, we’ve got safer schools.”

“As far as actual installation, we have used a number of electrical contractors,” added Blickenstaff. “Tech Electronics actually did the first few. Once they started writing the specs exclusively, we began to bid out the installations to keep the process competitive and get the best job at the best price. Still, Tech Electronics is there every step of the way, getting an understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish in each project, as well as attending all pre-bid meetings and overseeing the installation.”

Canova says that NOTIFIER’s technical support and training are outstanding. In fact, their training has allowed Rockwood to handle most of the basic system maintenance and simple system modifications, when necessary.

“We bring in NOTIFIER to train each customer on the panels that they purchased,” he said. “In addition, each year we have NOTIFIER representatives come in and conduct a special three-day training class during which they provide our customers with training on specific panels. When the folks from Rockwood attended, they left with enough knowledge to perform basic maintenance and troubleshooting themselves.

At this point, about 90 percent of Rockwood’s systems are equipped with NOTIFIER panels. Not only have they been retrofitted into the older facilities, they are automatically specified into all of the new buildings. There are still a few facilities that need to be updated, but that should be remedied within the next few years.

Installation is accomplished very quickly not only because of the expertise of the electrical contractors and the quality of the NOTIFIER systems, but due to the efficient scheduling of the work.

“Some of the high schools are pretty large, so it can take as much as a month and a half to install the systems,” said Canova. “However, we do all the pre-bid work up front, so that when school is out for the summer, the contractor has between early June and the end of August to complete the work. Since we’ve done a number of these schools, we have a pretty good idea of how to maximize the time that they’re empty.”

During this summer, Rockwood is installing a new NOTIFIER NFS2-640 intelligent fire alarm control panel in one of the schools. As part of the ONYX Series, the NFS2-640 is engineered specifically for medium-size applications, using technologies that maximize flexibility, quicken alarm response, reduce nuisance alarms, and simplify maintenance and usability. The panel is ideal for mid-size commercial office buildings, strip malls, assisted living facilities, and school buildings.

Besides the NFS2-640, Tech Electronics has also installed many different NOTIFIER fire alarm panels. But because the NFS2-640 is one of NOTIFIER’s most recent and advanced systems, it is now the panel of choice for Rockwood.

The NOTIFIER equipment and Tech Electronics’ project supervision has proved to be a powerful combination over the years for Rockwood.

“Everything is working smoothly,” said Blickenstaff. “We’re even talking about networking all the buildings in the district together. The bottom line is we now have fire systems that are giving our students and faculty the best possible protection.”