Centegix, a wearable emergency alert system, is nearing full installation across all 14 school campuses in Habersham County, officials announced during a school board work session on Thursday, April 17.
Assistant Superintendent David Leenman and Director of School Safety Murray Kogod provided an update on the implementation process, which began following the board’s approval in October of 2024. The project is being funded through $189,800 from the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST).
Annual fees for maintenance, wireless backup and updates for all Habersham schools would be just over $106,000.
Centegix operates on a private network and allows staff to instantly signal emergencies via wearable devices. The system includes strobes, which have already been installed across campuses.
“They are little white strobes attached throughout the county (campuses)…the purpose of those strobes is to alert people during an actual emergency,” Leenman said.
Once installed, a badge carried by all faculty members could notify authorities, identify the location of a potential threat and lockdown a school campus within seconds.
The final stage of installation involves the distribution of wearable components – a lanyard with an alert button. Kogod emphasized the importance of avoiding accidental alerts and ensuring the system is properly installed and understood by staff before activation.
“What we’re trying to do is avoid any false alarms,” he said. “The best way to do that is taking a little time to get those materials we need … as soon as we get those materials, we can enter into training mode. We will be able to definitely implement the project by mid/late-summer.”
Kogod went on to highlight the significance in clarifying the system’s visual signals.
“We want to make sure that there is no confusion, and that the only time (staff) sees a red blinking light is when there is an actual emergency,” Kogod said. “There are two modes: There’s a testing mode – that will blink yellow, and the message that will come through will say, ‘This is a drill’ … So, it’s very clear that when they see red, they know it’s an actual emergency.”
Last October, Habersham Board of Education Member Doug Westmoreland said the decision to implement the new system was well in the making before the Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School left four dead and nine injured.
“We were already looking into this well before the Apalachee incident,” Westmoreland said. “We were actually talking about this earlier at the beginning of the school year. I think it’s something that’s really going to empower teachers for the safety of our students. We want to get this in their hands as soon as possible. As a board, we are very, very aware of safety and we want to make that one of our top priorities.”
Superintendent Patrick Franklin also said in October that the need for the Centegix system already had been identified and planned for 2025.
“The Habersham County School System met with Centegix in early August – before the tragedy in Apalachee – regarding information gathering and pricing for implementation of the safety platform in all Habersham County schools,” Franklin said. “We are always looking for additional programs that can enhance current measures in place related to school safety.”
The system, credited with saving lives during the Sept. 4 tragedy at Apalachee, has been approved in surrounding school systems, including White County.
