APS has finally installed new crisis alert systems in most of its schools, after the process was delayed partly by concerns about the devices.

Esteban Candelaria, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·4 min read

Apr. 28—After months of delays, Albuquerque Public Schools has implemented new crisis alert systems in just about all of its schools.

The road to getting there was fraught with a delay, in part caused by a question of whether Centegix, the company providing the systems, had secured Federal Communications Commission certifications for its devices.

Centegix's CrisisAlert system has been installed in 139 of APS' schools, district spokesman Martin Salazar said in an email earlier this month, and as of Monday, all but one of those schools have seen the system go live.

The system, which employs panic cards educators can wear on their lanyards that enable them to summon school leadership or emergency responders by pushing a button on the card multiple times, has already helped schools in certain situations, Salazar said.

"Here at APS, it's been used by staff needing assistance for fights, medical issues, late-night trespassers, and to initiate shelters in place," he wrote.

APS has a five-year, $7.3 million contract with Centegix, for which it's using federal pandemic relief dollars on the installation and the first two years of the deal. The district said it will use capital funds to cover the rest of the contract. As of April 10, APS had paid about $1,075,230.

Originally planned to be rolled out in the fall, the CrisisAlert system only hit schools this year.

That delay was in part due to an issue raised by district officials early in the process over whether Centegix's devices were properly certified by the FCC, according to emails obtained by the Journal through an Inspection of Public Records Act request.

In July, Chief Information and Strategy Officer Richard Bowman wrote in an email to then-Chief Operations Officer Gabriella Blakey that his department "received a number of gateway devices from Centegix, but we reluctantly cannot accept them."

"According to the evidence we have been provided, they do not meet the compliance requirements of the RFP and they contain components that are being used in a manner that creates a fire safety and reliability hazard," Bowman wrote.

He added that the company must "provide written evidence that the devices are compliant with FCC regulations."

On July 13, Special Projects Coordinator for Emergency Response Julie Sanchez wrote that "Centegix is working to rectify the problem so gateway devices to be installed are compliant with FCC regulations and meet RFP requirements." She added that "this will delay the start of equipment installation."

Those gateway devices had been shipped back in June, according to a July 28 email from Sanchez, and new devices tagged with "FCC labeling" were to be sent as replacements.

While Bowman acknowledged in September that sample equipment his team received and tested "now appears to meet minimum FCC requirements, and they have addressed the initial cybersecurity issues that we identified," his team did "not recommend moving forward with this company and its devices."

Ultimately, APS did move forward with the project. Salazar wrote that "we did our due diligence and reached out to Centegix with those questions and received assurances from the company that it has always used FCC-compliant devices and modules in its equipment."

Centegix Chief Marketing Officer Mary Ford wrote in an email that "while each module had appropriate FCC IDs, we did take the additional step to have our entire fleet of devices certified as whole units to alleviate any additional concerns."

"No changes were made to any of the devices, which are used in thousands of locations across the country daily," Ford noted.

A search of the FCC equipment authorization database shows that all but one of Centegix's devices, filed by 34ED LLC, have certification dates that fell after the district's RFP with the company was approved last year.

APS, for its part, disputed the idea that Centegix did not have its FCC certifications, adding that keeping students and staff safe is among the district's top priorities and the CrisisAlert system is an important tool in achieving that goal.

"To be clear, no system is perfect; if we waited for things to be perfect, we'd never get anything done," Salazar wrote. "Centegix is one of several tools our educators have to summon help in the event of an emergency, and we feel that makes our campuses safer."