SchoolReach Parent Notification System Announces New Consortium Agreements

Company Partners With Education Support Agencies in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana and Wyoming

ST. LOUIS, MO., March 16, 2010 - SchoolReach parent notification has announced new consortium marketing and pricing agreements with the Colorado BOCES, Iowa Education Consortium, Montana Cooperative Education Services, Nebraska ESU, New Mexico Cooperative Education Services and Northeast Wyoming BOCES. SchoolReach is one of the most widely implemented school notification services used among K-12 schools in the United States.

Through the partnership agreements, the SchoolReach parent notification system will be made available to the K-12 school districts in these states at an exclusive discount with bundled features and special provisions. These announcements follow SchoolReach being selected as one of three national parent notification contractors by the Association of Education Purchasing Agencies (AEPA), of which these organizations are state-level affiliates.

Entities such as the Colorado BOCES were formed to provide schools with opportunities for shared educational, operational and professional services. "I am looking forward to the relationship," said John Tillman, director of cooperative purchasing. "I think the idea that we are all shooting for here is that, during this time, when we are facing severe school budget cuts and are in a tough economic climate, we need to band together and offer cooperative purchasing opportunities like this one with SchoolReach. Instant parent notification is a much needed service in the state of Colorado" said Tillman.

The AEPA is national purchasing consortium encompassing 23 states with ties to local organizations such as BOCES, Education Service Centers, Cooperative Service Agencies and others for program delivery. The AEPA vendor vetting process satisfies state-level request for proposal (RFP) requirements, which is another area of significant savings. The process of issuing an RFP can run tens of thousands and take months to complete. "Our agreement with SchoolReach under the AEPA guidelines allows a streamlined contracting process and savings to be passed directly to the school districts," added Tillman.

With its quick, three-step instant messaging process, SchoolReach allows an administrator to create a brief message, target a list of parents, teachers, district staff, or community members, and distribute the message to the list members simultaneously. Voice, email and text messaging modules can be used to respond to a variety of needs.

Once thought of just for school cancellations and urgent announcements, automated parent notification systems are now an integral part of the school-to-home communications process. "Our customers report increases in parent involvement coupled with significant reductions in communications expense," said Paul Langhorst, chief marketing officer for SchoolReach. "School districts nationwide are struggling with tight budgets; SchoolReach can improve communications while saving $10 to $20 per student in paper, printing, postage and labor expense making it a true win-win." For more information on SchoolReach visit http://www.schoolreach.com.

ABOUT EDUCATION SUPPORT AGENCIES

These associations and entities are an important and vital part of the public educational system in their states. These entities were formed to provide member districts with access to shared education and operational products and services which are more efficiently provided from a central source. More information about each entity can be found at:

Colorado BOCES: http://www.coloradoboces.org Education Consortium: http://www.iec-ia.org
Montana Cooperative ESC http://www.mtcoop.org
Nebraska ESU http://www.esu17.org

New Mexico Cooperative ESC http://www.nmedu.org
Northeast Wyoming BOCES http://www.newboces.com

Media Contacts:
Paul Langhorst at 314-748-5026 or planghorst@groupcast.com