NFL RB Steven Jackson Sends Phone Broadcast to St. Louis City Public Schools Students to Increase First-Day Attendance

St. Louis Rams Running Back, Steven Jackson, Broadcasts SchoolReach Message to Students to Encourage First-Day Attendance

ST. LOUIS, MO, August 18, 2011 - St. Louis City Public School District made innovative use of their SchoolReach school notification system to help encourage and increase attendance on the first day of school. St. Louis City school officials reached out to Steven Jackson, running back for the St. Louis Rams, to record a message that was broadcast to all school families and parents over the weekend prior to the first day of school.

As with many urban school systems, first day attendance can be challenging. Reaching parents with timely information about the start of school and the importance of first-day attendance is a significant challenge. Mailed information does not always reach parents in-time and those letters that do can often be misplaced or forgotten. The timely phone call reminder from a well-known sports figure that is a role model for many St. Louis City students was the perfect solution.

St. Louis City Public Schools has been a SchoolReach user for many years and have used the service in the past for first-day reminders, but this was the first time a local celebrity was used to encourage first-day attendance. "We decided to enhance our first-day reminder program with a celebrity voice to increase the program's effectiveness, said Patrick Wallace, Executive Director of Communications. "SchoolReach was the perfect solution because it enabled us to deliver the power of a credible voice with compelling information literally hours before the start of school."

School notification systems like SchoolReach are now a vital part of an overall school communications plan. In addition to this innovative first-day reminder, the St. Louis City school system uses SchoolReach for announcing weather cancellations late starts, unplanned dismissals, reminding parents of important meetings, events and submissions, and for automating daily absentee notices to parents. "SchoolReach is an integral part of our parent communications process, said Wallace. "We rely on SchoolReach to deliver near-term and urgent information to parents that we could not deliver with mail, email or notes sent home."

ABOUT SCHOOLREACH
SchoolReach is the K-12 division of St. Louis-based GroupCast, LLC, a broadcast voice, e-mail and SMS notification provider. From emergency communications and school closing announcements to attendance tracking and rumor control, SchoolReach simultaneously delivers personally recorded messages to tens, hundreds or thousands of individuals. More information about SchoolReach can be found at www.schoolreach.com.

ABOUT ST. LOUIS CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
St. Louis Public Schools is the district of choice for families in the St. Louis region that provides a world-class education and is nationally recognized as a leader in student achievement and teacher quality. The mission of the St. Louis Public Schools is to provide a quality education for all students and enable them to realize their full intellectual potential. The St. Louis Public Schools encompasses over 90 facilities, 25,000 students and is lead by Superintendent, Dr. Kelvin R. Adams. More information about St. Louis City Public Schools can be found at http://www.slps.org/slps/site/default.asp

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Media Contacts:
SchoolReach: Paul Langhorst @ 314-748-5026 or planghorst@groupcast.com
St. Louis City Public Schools: Patrick Wallace @ (314) 345-2227 patrick.wallace@slps.org