Those strobes are most likely tied into the school class bell system, so they will flash when the bell rings and alert people in the noisy gyms or shops that it is time to change classes. My high school uses several Federal Signal Adaptabeacon strobes in all three gyms for this application.
I’m working as an electrical intern at an engineering company this summer and their building has a conventional EST System, with EST Genesis Horn/Strobes, Conventional EST Smoke Detectors and Edwards 270(?) Pull Stations. There’s not much to it to be honest, but I thought I’d share.
My Preschool, (Johnson Elementary) had single stroke bells on 2903 strobe plates. That is all I remember. Oh and they were on pulse (ding ding ding etc.) In the second building, I THINK that there were simplex 2901-9838s.
In my school they have
SpectrAlert Classic Speaker Strobes - SP2R1224MC
SpectrAlert Classic Remote Strobes - S1224MC
Notifier BG-12LX
Notifier Addressable Smoke Detectors
Notifier Voice Evacuation and fire panel
Elementary School: I’m not exactly sure what system we had due to no knowing much about alarms, but I believe we had Gentex SGH’s or something, h/s red in halls, large rooms and strobe red in all small rooms and classrooms. Pulls were Edwards 270-SPO’s I think. Don’t remember smokes, but they were very bulky. Now the pulls were replaced with simplex t bars. I’ve only seen an annunciator, don’t know what it was. System set on continuous.
Middle School:Brand new system of Simplex truealarms, Simplex Truealert red wall horn strobes in music, auditorium, pool, gym, wrestling room. Gym had wire truealert covers. Bathrooms had truealert strobes, white wall mount. Halls, Home Ec, Library, Locker rooms, had White Ceiling mount horn strobes, the ones that sound like truealerts. Surprisingly, the cafeteria only had two white ceiling mount strobes. Classrooms, offices, cafeteria, labs had White simplex ceiling mount strobes. Smart sync. System set on code 3. Never saw the annunciator, but seen the panel, it’s a 4010 I think. Remnants of the old system remain including brown contemplates where old devices were, and in one lab, there is an old gentex SGH. Horn strobe. But there is a new strobe in that room
High school. Oh boy. There are various horns and buzzers abandoned around the school. School has two additions and a joined old elementary school. System: Faraday annunciator, Faraday chevron pulls, some stopper 2’s, Cerberus Pyrotronics Strobes in all classrooms, bathrooms, etc. Cerberus Pyrotronics UMMT’s anywhere else as horn strobes. Code 3. English wing (old elementary school) had red simplex strobes in classrooms for some reason. We are getting a new voice evac system made of Simplex Tbars, Truealert ceiling speaker strobes, truealert wall red speaker strobes, truealert strobes, White Ceiling strobes. that’s about it.
Sounds like your elementary school may have initially had a Fire-Lite or ESL system or some other company that used to use Edwards pulls, but then they upgraded to a Simplex system and kept the SHGs. It sounds like your school district is rather keen on Simplex! I’ve seen some school districts or colleges like that.
The school I go to has a weird fire alarm system. They are Wheelock 34T-24 Fire Alarm Horns. There is a Wheelock MT that got disconnected due to the loudness of it and the school bell was hooked up to the fire alarm system. Some of the Classroom’s have MT’s set to Bell which the panel is coded to Temporal (Code 3) The building is 94 years old. The school bells are Edwards 6 Inch Adaptabels (my favorite) There is 3 Simplex STR 6 inch bells. One of them is starting to die. The panel is a brand new Notifier NFS-320. There is a 34T that’s 12 volts DC. Last time we had a Fire Drill was September before I ended up moving to this school. 
There are heat detectors made by Mircom. I will keep you guys updated on the system
Heh, that’s like what they did at Springfield Elementary School on “The Simpsons,” hooking up the school bells to the fire alarm system!
My middle school had the Adaptabels, and they sure were loud! They had OLD ones from 1957 (still similar to the current ones), and a few were disconnected, and a couple were muffled up to reduce the volume (like the bell in the auditorium.)
The elementary school I went to for grades 1-6 had those Simplex bells, but they never worked. They installed them next to the fire alarms (old Federal Vibratone 450 horns), both behind gray flush-mount grilles.
As far as newer installations yes. but I’ve seen integrity at one school and spectralert advances at another
Sounds like my school district. They have companies bid on individual projects, so we end up with a mix and match style system. In fact, my elementary school now has a Fire Lite Panel tied into a new Edwards panel which I have yet to photograph, which has Simplex horns, Wheelock Non-ADA strobes and horns in the bathrooms, EST Horns Strobes in the E wing, Gentex Horn Strobes in the E-Wing (later addition), and some Spectra Alerts in the brand new classrooms.
Wait I made a mistake. The pull stations are Mirtone pull stations which are very nice looking. The Notifier pull stations look like those Mircom pull stations. The school is slated to be destroyed in 2015. It was built in 1919. One of the school bells were painted brown. It’s a Edwards Adaptabel.
Make sure you ask for old alarms 
3 of them have the old E logo. One of them is outside and it’s rusted pretty bad and it still works.
Lol when you say the school’s slated to be destroyed in 2015, I just picture in my head some big robot crushing the school yelling, “DESTROY. DESTROY” or I guess that’s just me :lol:
All the schools in my school board had the older bells, since most of them were built pre-1960s. The newer schools such as my elementary school (1979) had 4" Adaptabels and 10" ones. The newer schools built today just have the bell system on the PA system.
I just found out that my former high school is going to get an extensive renovation, either this summer or next summer. There is no doubt with this renovation, the fire alarm system will finally be replaced. The current system in the school is an Edwards Custom 6500, with a mix of single stroke/vibrating 10" Adaptabels, with 270-SPOs, and a couple of Mirtone 73201s. There is also a huge mix of smoke/heat detectors. I am hoping to ask the head custodian (me and him got along very well) to see if I can have some of the old alarms when/if they replace the system. Chances are if the system does get replaced, I would think they would go with a Simplex system with Truealerts, or an EST system with Genesis horn/strobes, or even newer fire bells.
Don’t tell me they would replace them with those ear-piercing Mircom (socalled) select-a-horn . I already had to go through Grade 2 to half of Grade 6 and they were in Pulse. I would like to own one though just as a keepsake.
Back in 2004-2006, my school board went and replaced all the old Edwards systems (usually 6500s or what I like to call the Edwards coded box panel) with new Mircom systems with Select-A-Horn/Strobes, so I doubt that. I’m assuming it would be replaced with a Simplex system, since they have been doing that with the most recent FA systems in the school board, including a new high school that opened up a year or two ago. That, or if they want to go a little cheaper (not have to replace the pulls and smokes), go with a newer Edwards system with Genesis or Product Innovation & Technical Leadership | Edwards Signaling these bells.
My school had a Genesis put up yesterday.
Update: EST Genesis was installed yesterday. A 34T wasn’t replaced. However I never knew the daycare has 2 Wheelock NS horn-strobes and really nice condition Vintage Edwards 270-SPO. Whenever we have a fire drill. I feel scared sometimes. It’s cause in 2006 I had EST Adaptahorn a.k.a the things that made me cry in kindergarten. I like fire alarms but NewAgeServerAlarm did a simulation of my school I went to in 2006/2007. but the pull stations were in stoppers and the panel was a 4001.
I decided to snap a picture of the new Genesis. It looks nice on the wall that was recently repainted.