The Post Online - SchoolCast system keeps students in touch

April 7, 2008

SchoolCast system keeps Johnson in touch with students

CENTRE — Superintendent Brian Johnson recently wished the every student in grades 3 through 8 good luck on their upcoming standardized tests, and it only took a few mouse clicks to do it. Johnson used SchoolCast, the county's automated messaging system, which allows him to send voice messages to every student in the county.

“I only selected the grades I needed and left a message for those students,” said Johnson. “I know how frustrating tests can be. I just wanted to encourage them to do their best.”

The Cherokee County School System started using SchoolCast in 2006. Basically, the approach is a rapid alert and notification system that allows school officials to contact list of hundreds of parents and faculty, and even emergency respondents, with a single phone call. The system operates through the Internet. It does not tie up any school or board of education phone lines. The user simply types in a password and selects the group or groups to receive the message.

Three years ago, Johnson was at a state conference while a representative from SchoolCast was there to do a presentation about the system. After watching the presentation, Johnson was hooked.

“I knew from the moment I sat down and listened to the representative that this was something I wanted to do for county schools,” said Johnson. “Although we can use the system for many things, I think the most important thing is for safety and peace of mind for students. When we first signed on, we were one of five schools systems in the state that was part of SchoolCast.”

Since many parents work during the day, SchoolCast is a quick and convenient way to alert them that the county is facing, for example, severe weather. As a parent, Johnson is aware that many people get caught up in their child's safety during dangerous weather. SchoolCast can call thousands of numbers at one time.

“If one parent works in Gadsden and the other works in Rome, Ga., and we are sending their child home because of a tornado, it's nice for them to get that call,” said Johnson. “They know that their child is going home. The parents can make sure someone is there to meet the child. We would not want a child going home to an empty house.”

SchoolCast is good for morning weather calls, too. Johnson can let students, parents, faculty and bus drivers know if school will be delayed for a few hours because of ice or an approaching severe thunderstorm.

The system can also be used for county-wide emergency alerts, information specific to a certain school, and team sports announcements. All school faculty members can access SchoolCast and select groups of students to receive specific messages.

“We can break it down to different grades, schools, teams, Beta clubs and more,” said Johnson. “If a group is on a field trip and the buses are going to be late, we can let parents know that, too. Then, they won't worry if their child arrives home a little later than planned.”

At the beginning of each year when students are registering, parents or guardians give contact information that the Board of Education stores in SchoolCast. After school begins, parent can change any contact information they need to by going to a website and using a pass code.

“Parents may want a cell phone contact as opposed to their home or work phone, or vice versa,” said Johnson. “If the parent works far away, they can give another number of, maybe a grandparent, to be used in case of an emergency.”

The only problem that Johnson has found with so far is that some older answering machines pick up immediately and the SchoolCast message begins playing, causing some of the information to get cut off. Newer, digital answering machines allow for the entire message to play on the recording.

“I guess every system has its quirks,” said Johnson. “That's a small problem that we have to deal with.”

After Johnson sends a message, SchoolCast sends Johnson a report containing all of the information about the message. When he sent the encouragement to the county's 3rd through 8th grade students, the system sent 1,969 total calls. Of those, 1,505 were answered, 463 were unanswered; the call duration was 30 seconds, human contacts were 1,098, and 403 of the calls were answered by answering machines.

“SchoolCast works effectively,” said Johnson. “There is no way that I could sit down and make the thousands of calls SchoolCast can make in a few moments.”