Case Study: Vestavia Hills City Schools achieves centralized cloud access control and integrated video management with Genea

How School Security is Changing

Vestavia Hills City Schools, a K-12 district serving about 7,200 students across nine campuses, faced security challenges with an aged, on‑premises Lenel S2 access control system that required manual provisioning, offered poor vendor support, and could not integrate with their Milestone video system. To modernize and centralize security, the district selected Genea’s cloud-based access control solution.

Genea imported Vestavia’s user data, shipped Mercury controllers, and—working with integrator CDW—had 11 doors installed and tested within a week, enabling door scheduling, door groups, and a no-cost integration with Milestone cameras. The Genea implementation delivered centralized access-and-video management, streamlined credentialing (150 credentialed users), better visibility into hallways and events, reliable 24/7/365 support, and cost savings via a “software takeover” that avoids replacing existing readers.

Vestavia Hills City Schools

Keith Price

Director of Technology