Phones let schools reach out to parents

By CRISTELA GUERRA
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

With bomb scares and lockdowns a part of the daily vocabulary in schools across the nation, automated messaging systems are just one step schools are taking to keep parents involved and aware.

According to Lt. Tim Enos, it's a sign of the times. "The messaging system is all tied into critical response planning that involves everyone, not just school resource officers, but policy and school administrators," he said.

Enos is public information officer for the Florida Association of School Resource Officers, which provides training to school officials in developing their crisis response plans.

Falling into step with public schools in the area, four private schools in Boca Raton have already adopted a messaging service called "SchoolReach" to aid in reaching parents. The Palm Beach School District has had a similar system in place for the past three years. It has already trained 95 out of their 180 schools to use "One Voice," which is based in the Fulton-Holland Educational Service Center downtown.

Both serve as a means for schools to send out announcements, attendance notices and give updates during emergencies. "We use 100 percent of the system everyday to inform on attendance and let parents know about FCAT scores when they're out," said Helen Hironimus, who works in the district's network and application support division.

"We did use it during Wilma, though, and it worked just as well to inform families when school reopened." It's also worked for St. Paul Lutheran School in Boca Raton, which has been using SchoolReach for the past three years.

Ralph Utech, 55, director of computers and media at St. Paul, said it's a far cry from the old days

"Three and a half years ago, when we found out we didn't have school, our parent teacher league would call all 350 families," he said.

Doing the math, Utech said each league member made about 70 calls each, assuming the call was picked up the first time.

Paul Langhorst, co-founder of GroupCast Messaging Systems and vice president of operations at SchoolReach, said that as a parent, he knows what it feels like to be left out of the loop.

"When my daughter was in fifth grade, I went over to pick her up around 3 p.m. as usual," he said."I sat in an empty parking lot for 15 minutes before I went in and found out school had closed at noon because a water main broke." He remembers asking: "''Nobody called me?''"