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Faster is
Better When Schools Spread Word
Ron DePasquale, Boston Globe, December 1, 2005
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School officials
in several of Boston's western suburbs are using new
communications systems that allow them to make hundreds, or even
thousands, of phone calls to parents almost instantaneously.
Proponents of the "school-to-home" communications systems, which
are seeing use by a growing number of districts nationwide, say
they can be invaluable in reaching out to parents for both
routine messages and in emergencies.
"It's quite a remarkable system. It's really something special.
There's the security of parents knowing what's going on right
away," said Wrentham's superintendent, Mick Janelli. Plainville
and Weston are also using the systems.
School officials record a message. The systems can then forward
that message to everyone in the school community or subsets of
people, school officials said. If a school bus breaks down, for
example, the school can notify just those parents affected.
Last-minute reminders for field trips, PTO meetings, or
parent-teacher conferences can also be sent, instead of being
forgotten in a 7-year-old's backpack. Teachers who are driving a
long commute to work on a snowy day can be called on their
cellphones and told that school has been canceled. Officials
said the systems could also be helpful in case of emergencies,
such as an attack on a school or a health emergency.
The three districts are using Connect-Ed, a product of Sherman
Oaks, Calif.-based Notification Technologies. The company said
it serves more than 4,500 school districts nationwide, but a
spokesman, citing competitive concerns, wouldn't say how many
Massachusetts districts use the product. The company's
competitors include School Messenger of Detroit; ParentLink of
Hackensack, N.J.; and Instant Alert for Schools, made by
Honeywell of Morristown, N.J.
Plainville's superintendent, Michael Malone, said one benefit of
the system is that it encourages regular updating of the
school's contact lists. Every time a call fails, a
computer-generated report lets the school know that an updated
number is needed. An up-to-date list is "an invaluable thing
when you have an emergency," Malone said.
The systems also help stamp out rumors, officials said. In minor
incidents -- a boiler problem, for example, that requires a
firetruck to wait outside a school -- schools can let everyone
know quickly that there's no cause for alarm, Malone said. "It
takes care of the fears," he said. "And if we have a real
situation, we can say, 'Pick up your student here,' and they'll
know for certain where." A bomb scare last month at a Cohasset
school was easier to manage with the ability to immediately send
out messages that updated parents, said Cohasset's
superintendent, Denise Walsh. "Parents appreciate it," she said.
"We [use it to] tell people about changes in parent-teacher
conferences or fund-raising or school pictures, so they're
already used to hearing the principal's voice. When something
more serious happens, that has a calming effect."
Connect-Ed's technology was developed by Bedford-based
EnvoyWorldWide. Nancy Liberman, EnvoyWorldWide's vice president
of marketing, said the technology has also been used by
businesses. Liberman said insurance companies, for example, made
hundreds of thousands of calls after Hurricane Wilma struck
Florida in October to let customers know how to file an
emergency claim. Energy companies also use the technology to
avert blackouts, Liberman said, by issuing a wave of calls to
electricity consumers asking them to cut back when the power
supply runs low. In New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina struck
in August, businesses used the system to call their employees
and request a call-back to ensure they were OK. "This
traditionally would've been handled by phone trees, but these
are time-sensitive calls, and it's done more efficiently this
way," Liberman said.
Agawam will join the first wave of cities and towns signing up
for a pilot program called Connect-City, designed for local
governments, under which officials will be able to make nearly
instantaneous calls to large groups of residents.
Agawam, perched between the Connecticut and Westfield rivers,
has been prone to flooding in the past, and the community needs
an effective warning system, said Mayor Richard A. Cohen. The
City Council voted last month to spend $10,000 for the program.
"You never know what can happen, and anything can happen
anywhere," he said. "It's a small price to pay to maintain
safety. You can never be too prepared."
Communities and school districts have tried other phone
notification systems. But more calls can be made faster with the
newer systems. The Connect-Ed system can also send out mass
e-mails. In an era of tight budgets around the country, some
school districts have funded Connect-Ed by finding a corporate
sponsor. Sponsors can be plugged at the end of phone calls to
parents, with the principal or superintendent saying the message
was made possible by that sponsor.
Any advertising should be approved by the community, said Lillie
Coney, associate director at the Electronic Privacy and
Information Center in Washington, D.C. No advertisements have
been attached to messages in Wrentham, Plainville, and Weston.
Coney said activists also were concerned that the contact
information compiled by schools and municipalities could be sold
for use by businesses. "We've seen companies who excel at
safeguarding private information go bankrupt, and customer
information is an asset that is auctioned off like everything
else," Coney said. Connect-Ed's security is "highly
sophisticated," said Natasha Rabe, vice president of
Notification Technologies. And if the company went bankrupt, a
buyer would be legally obligated to comply with the company's
privacy policy, which prohibits selling personal information,
she said.
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