Replacing failing cameras and mechanical keys: how St. Luke Catholic School modernized security with Kastle

About St. Luke Catholic School

St. Luke Catholic School is a small parochial school in McLean, Virginia, set in a quiet residential neighborhood about a mile from the Beltway and two miles from Washington, D.C. When Principal Tanya Salewski raised security concerns with the Parish Council, a donor stepped forward to fund a full system upgrade, and the school chose Kastle to lead the project based on its reputation for sophisticated solutions and customer service.

The challenge

When Kastle’s project management team, led by Mark Calvert, assessed St. Luke’s existing system, they found failing cameras and wires that led nowhere. The school had no modern access control and no live video monitoring, and every door still used mechanical keys, so there was no record of who came and went.

Visitors checked in through a general sign-in sheet and manual badges, well short of what a school so close to the nation’s capital needed. St. Luke’s also lacked panic buttons and lockdown capability, measures that, unfortunately, many schools now have to plan for. Calls from the local police department warning of nearby incidents were frequent, and the aging system left the school ill-prepared to respond.

The solution

Kastle brought St. Luke’s access control and surveillance cameras together under one cloud-based platform. The team installed access card readers and electronic locks on every door in the building, including the exterior doors in each classroom, and now manages access rights and scheduling for those doors from a single portal.

Thirteen cameras, seven interior and six exterior, now operate together on the KastleVideo platform. A gateway appliance lets the school’s older camera network work with Kastle’s technology instead of being ripped out and replaced, and a new viewing station lets staff monitor every camera on-site, in addition to the feed reaching Kastle’s central station. Because the platform runs on the cloud, the principal and other authorized users can manage access details and review footage remotely.

Kastle also implemented KastleVisitor to let St. Luke’s preauthorize guests, send automatic invites, and control exactly when a visitor can enter the building. Image display and photo badge capabilities confirm that only authorized visitors get through the door, each carrying a barcode assigned specifically to them. On top of that, Kastle now monitors the school’s fire panels and the panic and duress button in the Main Office, so it can respond immediately if a lockdown is needed.

The outcome

Staff now use credentials instead of mechanical keys, and every door carries a reader tied to that system. The principal can revoke or add a user’s access rights instantly, putting control at her fingertips rather than requiring a locksmith or a rekeyed building.

St. Luke’s no longer has to manage and maintain its own security systems. Kastle provides ongoing service, software updates, and next-generation equipment as part of the relationship, and the KastleVisitor solution keeps entry into the school quick, efficient, and safe. “I wasn’t willing to entrust our security to anyone else but Kastle,” Salewski says. “They deliver all the components needed and are doing a wonderful job for me. I feel really proud to be able to tell the parents we are keeping their kids safe.”