Automated system provides info on school closings

By Kevin Carbery

Jefferson County Journal

If it is necessary to announce a snow day in Jefferson County, many public and private school officials turn to the SchoolReach system to spread the word.

The system, from GroupCast Messaging systems, provides a recorded message from a school official to parents for emergency purposes or for a general announcement. The announcement is sent to a list of families simultaneously. Once the message is recorded, it only takes a few minutes to disseminate the information.

Jefferson County public school districts that use the SchoolReach system include Crystal City, De Soto, Sunrise, Jefferson R-7, Northwest, Hillsboro, Grandview and Windsor. Private schools in the county that have turned to SchoolReach are Holy Child School, Arnold; St. Pius X High School, Crystal City; St. Anthony School, High Ridge; and St. Joseph School, Imperial.

Officials from various districts and schools around the county were contacted to get their opinions of the system. All those reached sang the system's praises.

"We put a system in place at the start of school," Grandview R-2 Superintendent Michael Brown said. "We use it for everything, not just snow days. "It works fine. It, basically, will notify everyone in the district in 15 minutes."

Being able to alert the entire district of important information in a short time is not only comforting, Brown said, but it allows him to delay making a decision whether to call off school until later in the morning, unlike in the past.

"With snow days, it will allow you to make a decision later, but the message can get passed around quicker," the superintendent said. "We've found the system to be very effective."

Brown said his district paid a $4,000 installation fee for the system, then will pay less than $500 a year to continue using the system. "We feel it's a good purchase," he said.

Holy Child School Principal Joann Coyle also said she is impressed with the speed that phone messages can be delivered through SchoolReach. "We've had it about four years," Coyle said. "It works great. Heavens yes, it's an improvement over what we used to do. It's greatly improved the amount of time it takes to get your message out."

"You can use it for snow days or any other announcements. You can tape whatever you want the message to be." Carol Schmidt, a spokesperson for St. Pius X High School, said messages can also be targeted to specific school groups through SchoolReach. "We can contact every family or specialty groups, such as the freshman class or the senior class," Schmidt said. "It has been a nice tool for us.' She said.

St. Pius officials are happy with SchoolReach, which they have used for three years. "We're extremely pleased," she said. "It's tremendously helped our communication with our parents." Schmidt said SchoolReach rates vary depending on the size of the entity using it.