Champaign Unit 4 School District Aims to Build Trust with Students While Helped to Improve Safety By Leveraging Evolv Express® System

One year ago, Valarian Couch was hired as the CIO at Champaign Unit #4 Schools in Champaign, Illinois and given a joint charter—overseeing the district’s IT infrastructure and operations, and managing the district’s physical security. Couch and the school board elected to have all of the students at Central High School pass through a walk-through manual screening solution in early October. “We literally had some students waiting in line for two hours,” he recalls. “The line went around the block with some students missing their first two classes of the day.” He knew this was not going to work out. “I did my research and identified Evolv as the answer,” he says. “The Evolv Express® completely changes this negative perception into a positive one of trust. It is time for us to enter into the 21st century, and the Evolv Express and its integration points with other security capabilities is an important facilitator of this trust.” By implementing the Evolv Express, Champaign District 4 Schools were able to:

• Help reduce 50%-plus false alarm rate to 5% without any compromise of detection
• Help sustain always-on weapons detection and screening without security queues
• Help to enhance security by integrating Evolv into video security management system and cybersecurity infrastructure