Joliet Public School District 86 is located in Joliet, Illinois and serves over 10,000 students in the areas just outside of Chicago. Before Troy Whalen, Assistant Superintendent of Business for Joliet Public Schools, came to IDville the schools were not using any method of identification for any level of education. District 86 is comprised of several schools up through the junior high level. In 2002, when Whalen was looking to implement an ID card system in their junior highs, he came to IDville.
“Mainly we were looking to increase the efficiency of our lunch program,” Whalen said, “Which at the time was utilizing a paper punch card kind of system.” He had received an IDville catalog and after reviewing the different types of systems he decided on the Dual-Sided ID Maker Secure System. The ability to print a barcode on one side of the card was of the utmost importance to Whalen since that was how they were going to track the lunch participation.
There are four junior highs in District 86, serving about 3,000 students. “Each junior high student is required to wear their ID badge with a barcode to track lunch activity. The cards include the student’s name, photo, a barcode, and the school name and mascot,” said Whalen. With the volume of cards Whalen was looking to print (about 3,000 per year) the specialty ID Maker Secure System was the best choice for him.
“The Secure System is the top choice for customers looking to print a high volume of cards with options for security-enhancing overlays,” said David Ditmar, IDville Customer Relations Representative. “This system prints dual-sided cards in just 35 seconds. It was a great choice for Mr. Whalen, as schools need to print quickly to speed up the registration process.”
In order to ensure that the students have a way to display their IDs, Whalen purchased a slot punch for each of the schools and has provided Flat Woven Breakaway Lanyards from IDville for each student. “The photo ID system has helped to identify students quickly and has eliminated our paper lunch tickets.” This new system makes for a safer, more advanced environment for students and staff within the junior highs.
District 86’s junior highs have now been through 2 cycles of registration since purchasing their photo ID systems and things are running smoothly. “Working with IDville has been a very positive experience!” said Whalen.
Joliet Public School District 86 is located in Joliet, Illinois and serves over 10,000 students in the areas just outside of Chicago. Before Troy Whalen, Assistant Superintendent of Business for Joliet Public Schools, came to IDville...