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North Lawrence Community Schools to use School-to-Home Communications System from SchoolReach
ST. LOUIS, MO - Aug. 26, 2009 - North Lawrence Community Schools (NLCS) in Indiana has selected SchoolReach, the fastest-growing parent notification service used among K-12 public schools in the United States, to provide an instant parent contact system for the 5,800 student district. The SchoolReach system, currently used by more than 4,200 schools in 49 states, provides an effective and affordable way for school officials to send personally recorded messages to parents for emergency alerts and general announcements of timely interest.
"After looking at several providers, we ultimately decided that SchoolReach provided the best services at a very attractive cost," said Dennis Turner, superintendent, NLCS. "The list was long in terms of the key features that we found particularly attractive. We also liked the fact that SchoolReach is completely dedicated to the K-12 market. The company understands our fundamental need to communicate with thousands of parents and staff quickly and easily, and they have developed a solution that perfectly complements our communications needs."
Located halfway between Indianapolis and Louisville, KY, NLCS will use the parent notification system for myriad uses including weather related closings, utility failures/disruptions, meeting and fundraising reminders, report card notices, on-site violence, rumor abatement, and automated daily attendance. NLCS received a discount in the purchase price of SchoolReach offered through the Southern Indiana Education Center partnership.
"Our organization formed a partnership with SchoolReach so we could offer the popular SchoolReach notification system at a discount to our members. In addition, we use the system to communicate to our members about upcoming meetings, workshops and conferences and in some cases schedule changes related to those meetings," said Scott Turney, director of the Southern Indiana Education Center. "Many districts in our region have seized the opportunity to implement the SchoolReach communications system and have commented that it is way more than an emergency notification system. It's a method for fostering improved parent relationships."
SchoolReach allows school administrators to record a brief message for delivery to an extensive, or selective, list of parents, teachers or students, simultaneously. Greeted by the familiar voice of a school representative, after seeing their school's Caller ID, parents immediately know that the message is important. The "List-Record-Launch" rapid messaging process takes only minutes for the notification to reach parents. Replacing older forms of communication, such as phone trees and sending notes home with students, the system allows for beneficial, timely distribution of accurate and vital information.
"Schools struggle with 'immediate, same day, or night-before' notices to parents," said Paul Langhorst, vice president of operations at GroupCast, SchoolReach's parent company. "SchoolReach fills this need perfectly and requires no additional hardware, software, or phone lines to operate the solution. We are very pleased that North Lawrence Community Schools recognizes the value of having a proactive system like SchoolReach in their communications toolkit."
About SchoolReach
SchoolReach is a subsidiary of St. Louis-based GroupCast, an instant messaging notification service. As the leading parent notification service among private schools, and the fastest growing service used by public schools across the country, SchoolReach offers the simplest way to reach parents, staff and students with essential messages. From weather and schedule changes to attendance tracking and from emergency notification to rumor control, SchoolReach simultaneously delivers the personally recorded message to tens, hundreds, or thousands of individuals and takes only minutes to reach all of its recipients. More information about SchoolReach or GroupCast can be found at www.schoolreach.com andwww.groupcast.com.
About North Lawrence Community Schools
North Lawrence Community Schools is located about halfway between Indianapolis and Louisville. The Corporation includes a high school, a career center, three middle schools, 10 elementary schools, and a special education center. Student enrollment of about 5,800 (K-12) is served by approximately 800 certified and support employees.