Staff Writer
Two area schools have implemented a new parent notification system for school closures and emergencies.
According to SAD 1 and SAD 32 Superintendent Gehrig Johnson, ALERTNOW Rapid Notification Service will enhance parental communication in both Presque Isle and Ashland. “This service will allow us to send a voice and/or e-mail message to all of our students’ parents on all of their contact numbers within minutes,” he said. “We will be using ALERTNOW for emergency notification situations such as evacuations or lockdowns, inclement weather cancellations, and early dismissals and school delays due to bad weather.”
The ability to deliver a message, however, is only as successful as the contact information the district has for families, Johnson said.
“Letters have gone home to parents encouraging them to make sure we have the most up-to-date direct dial numbers and e-mail addresses,” he said. “If this information changes, we want them to let their child’s school principal know immediately so we can update the system.”
With ALERTNOW, phones with caller ID will display 4-1-1 anytime a call is sent. The system will also attempt to call extensions.
“If you have a live operator at the switchboard, you should inform them of this system,” said Johnson. “If you have a direct dial number at work, you should provide your school principal with the direct dial number not a main number plus an extension.
“ALERTNOW will also leave a message on participants’ voicemail or answering machines,” said Johnson. “If you have such things as Telemarketer Zapper or Privacy Director on your telephone lines, you may not receive the call.”
Within a half-hour of sending a message, the district will receive a printout notifying them of who didn’t get the notice.
The system will cost the district about $4,000, or $2 per student. The service will be paid using federal Safe and Drug-Free School funds.
“The great thing about this is you can use as many contacts as you want – home phones, cellular phones, home e-mails, work e-mails, etc.,” said Johnson. “We’ll try it for a year and see how it works.
“A number of school systems have this system in place including Bangor which just recently implemented it,” he said. “It’s very popular and successful. We are very pleased to incorporate ALERTNOW as a tool to improve parent communication and look forward to having the ability to deliver immediate real-time information to parents regarding their child.”
SAD 1 and SAD 32 tested the system yesterday morning. Johnson said in SAD 1, 6,857 messages were sent to parents’ home and work phones, cellular phones, e-mail addresses, etc. There was a 92 percent success rate.
In SAD 32, 1,232 messages were sent with a 93 percent success rate.
“We’re very pleased with the system,” said Johnson. “We’re going to refine it and try to get the remaining 8 percent and 7 percent, respectively.”
For more information about the system, parents should contact their school principal or Sherry Brown, district technology coordinator, at sherry.brown@sad1.org or sherry.brown@sad32.org.
