When Elk Rapids School District in northern Michigan set out to enhance student and staff safety, the goal was ambitious: extend access control to nearly every interior door across multiple buildings. With more than 167 classroom and faculty doors to secure, district leaders knew that a traditional wired system would be expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive to learning spaces. They needed a smarter, faster way forward.
"Running conduit and wiring every single door would have been a nightmare," said Sam Huron, Project Manager at Windemuller Electric, the contractor chosen for the project. "It would have doubled the time, doubled the labor, and we'd still be fighting with door frames filled with concrete.” Instead, the district chose a new generation of HES ES100 wireless access control locks with integrated electric strikes and readers. The solution, installed by Windemuller Electric and managed through Verkada's access control platform, delivered the same real-time control and reporting as wired doors, without the complexity
School construction projects often face tight summer or holiday windows, and Elk Rapids couldn’t afford to extend installation into the school year. That’s where the wireless approach made all the difference.
Once crews became familiar with the system, installation accelerated rapidly. “We’re saving half the labor per door,” Huron explained. “If we had gone the wired way, we’d be light years behind where we are today.”
Installers were able to complete 10-15 doors per person per day, and the retrofit avoided disruptive ceiling runs, conduit installs, and complicated terminations. In a district where many frames were filled with concrete, wireless locks proved to be the clear solution. “We would have been drilling forever,” Huron said. “With this system, it was a straightforward retrofit.”
For Elk Rapids, the benefits went beyond installation speed. Each ES100 wireless electric strike integrates seamlessly into the school’s existing Verkada platform, appearing exactly like a wired door. Administrators can credential, schedule, and monitor without new training or extra steps.
“The locks show up in the system like any other door,” said Huron. “You can deny access, grant access, and see status updates in real time. There’s no difference on the software side, which made it easy for the district to adopt.”
Just as important was reliability. The district’s past experience with older battery key--pad locks had been frustrating; when batteries died, locks lost their programming, forcing resets and leaving doors unsecured. “The district used to have locks that lost their programming when the battery died,” Huron recalled. “It was a nightmare, reprogramming, reissuing codes, dealing with doors that weren’t secure. These new locks don’t have that problem. They maintain functionality and integrate cleanly with the system.”
A project of this scale required more than just new hardware, it needed a strong partnership. Before installation even began, ASSA ABLOY provided technical support including door and frame photos, a demo unit, and in-office training for Windemuller’s crews.
“Having that level of support upfront gave us a ton of confidence,“ Huron said. “We knew exactly what to expect, and when we got to the field, it went smoothly.” That collaboration ensured Elk Rapids could maximize its investment, with guidance on everything from battery management to long-term system integration.
Elk Rapids is one of the first districts in northern Michigan to extend secure access control to nearly every classroom. The project demonstrates that large-scale security upgrades can be both cost-effective and practical when wireless technology is leveraged.
“This system was super easy to install and program,“ Huron emphasized. “It’s faster, cleaner, and way more scalable than wired. For schools that want to lock down every classroom, this is the way forward.”
By selecting HES ES100 wireless access control with integrated electric strikes and readers, Elk Rapids Schools delivered classroom-level security with less cost, less labor, and minimal disruption. The project not only enhanced security district-wide but also set a model for other schools: real-time access control that can be deployed faster and smarter.