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School officials invest in new way to keep community informed
By Derek Hodges
Jackson County school officials have a new way of keeping parents and students informed of important news.
The school system recently invested in a program called Connect-ED that will alert the community about events like school closures and emergencies.
“We are responding to feedback from our community that parents want more communication and more information regarding their child’s safety and education,” Superintendent Sue Nations said.
School officials give phone numbers of those who need to be contacted about school happenings to Notification Technologies Inc., which runs the Connect-ED program. In the event of a school closing, emergency, meeting or attendance concern, a message will be recorded and sent to each phone number within minutes, curriculum coordinator Steve Jones said.
“NTI Connect-ED provides a cost-effective communications solution that will keep parents more involved, students safe and our schools secure,” Nations said.
Additionally the system can target specific groups of students, Jones said.
“For instance if a certain bus at Fairview was having trouble, (Fairview Principal Dennis) Proffit could tell the system to call only those parents who would have students riding that bus,” Jones said.
Some parents have expressed reservations about allowing their phone numbers to be sent to the company, fearing it may lead to telemarketers’ calls, Jones said. However, the company has assured school officials that the numbers will not be sold, and security breaches are “not likely,” Jones said.
The system will only be used in critical situations, so as not to make the call from school officials a sort of “boy who cried wolf” situation that leads to the messages being ignored, Jones said.
The program is operational and has been given a test run with satisfactory results, Jones said.
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