Rossford schools start new district alert system
9/4/2012The Rossford schools have a new alert system for keeping families abreast of district news and events, and it's projected to save the district money.
The system, called Power Announcement, replaces the Honeywell system the schools had been using and will make it easier for officials to stay in contact with parents, said Sandra Smith, the district's technology director. The cost to the district is less than $1.50 per student.
As with the former system, Power Announcement will send email, voice, and text messages, but to ensure its efficient use, parents will need to confirm their contact information is up to date, Ms. Smith said.
"They can do this by clicking on the Parent Portal on the district Web site," she said, adding that the new system made setting up preferences easier.
The site at www.rossford.k12.oh.us asks for home and cell-phone numbers for parents and guardians and email addresses. The default settings have all three kinds of messages selected. Phone charges incurred are not the responsibility of the school.
There also are fields for other numbers such as the student's cell phone, or a grandparent's, or baby sitter's.
Emergency messages are sent to all three message types and cannot be opted out. Also, any contact information that is changed through the Parent Portal automatically will be changed in the student services system records.
The old system had different data bases and two log-ins.
"Now everything is combined. It saves us time because we're not entering data into two systems," Ms. Smith said.
She encouraged anyone having difficulty with the new system to contact her at 419-720-6700.
-- Carl Ryan