Parents of students in RSU/MSAD 40 will be receiving information from the schools in coming weeks about a new alert system that the district will be testing this spring. At least for the remainder of the school year, the district will partner with School Messenger, a company that provides a notification system for “emergencies, student attendance and other important parent information,” according to a press release issued by the district technology committee.
Following a brief training on the system on Jan. 25, RSU/MSAD 40 Supt. Frank Boynton said the district is still working out exactly how the system will be used.
“It has a lot of features, but we have to work out who will have access to the system, how much we’re going to send, and to whom we’re going to send the messages,” Boynton said. “It’ll be very handy for a variety of things.”
The system will call, text or email parents, based on their preference, with alerts about school cancellations, events and emergencies, Boynton said. The system can also alert parents if their child fails to arrive at school, according to the press release.
The district hopes the system will be ready to go online by the third week in February, Boynton said.
Currently, the district uses notes sent home with students to alert parents of most information. Some parents are alerted about school cancellations via text message using a system provided by Channels 6 and 13 news.
When the district decides to cancel school, they send a message to the news channels, which then broadcast the information on TV, as well as send a text message to any parents who have signed up for the service, Boynton said.
However, for events such as plays or sporting events, and emergencies such as bomb threats or other incidents that close school, the school is restricted to physical notes sent home with students.
The new system will be “much more immediate,” Boynton said.
The district started looking at adding an alert system of this kind last spring. The district budgeted $3500 to pay for a one-year trial of the system at Medomak Valley High School. However, they were not ready to start the program last fall, so the School Messenger agreed to let the district run the trial program in all of its schools, for just the spring, for about half the cost the district budgeted, Boynton said.
