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SchoolReach User Story Contest – December 2007
In December 2007 SchoolReach announced a user story contest to gather feedback from our customers on how they use SchoolReach to impact school-to-parent communications. We had many responses demonstrating a range of uses from unplanned school cancelations to requests for prom volunteers. We hope you find the collection of customer stories below informative on the many many ways that SchoolReach can impact parent and staff communications at your school.
Thank you to all the participants and congratulations to the winners as shown below.
Best Regards,
Paul Langhorst
Co-Founder & Vice President, Operations
Personal Computer Winner - Grand Prize
Michael L. Kish
Immaculate Conception School
School Reach...where would I be without it?
School Reach is a communication tool for good and bad times. "Snow day" calls are happy ones to make. So was a call made to our parents from Washington, D.C. last year during the annual 8th grade field trip. We called all our school families to remind them of our pastor's 60th birthday party, "Meet the Teacher Night", our grandparents day program, and to congratulate our 5th grade Project Citizen Team for going to the National Convention of Legislative Leaders in Boston. We reminded our families to come and help work at our Parish Picnic and build community with elbow grease. School Reach is part of our Crisis Management Plan. Our three top crisis managers have the info and ability to inform parents if the unexpected has arisen.
But if I had to choose one specific event that School Reach helped me and our school family in a crisis, I would have to cite this one:
"Sadness is a part of all our lives. School Reach allowed me to alert our families about the unexpected passing of one of our parents the day after Thanksgiving(November 23, 2007) while Christmas shopping. Our school community rapidly responded in coming together to honor this Mom and her family and become "pinch hitters" for her and her husband with her first grade son. Her parting word to us from one of her friends at her liturgy was "Believe". We have continued to use this theme since then in decals and our discussions about connecting with people, for she surely did. We believe that communication is vital in parents-students-teachers working together. School Reach works effectively in good and bad times. "Believe". "
$25 Gift Card Winner
Dr. Lois Stansbury
Annunciation Catholic School
This is the message I sent out to all of my students on Sunday, November 25, 2007.
Good evening. This is Dr. Stansbury, your principal at ACS, and I have a message for you. "You better watch out. You better not pout. You better not cry. I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to Annunciation." Just a reminder of Santa's Workshop starting tomorrow.Bye!
The next day, the children were so excited. Some of the comments to me were:
"I didn't know you knew my phone number."
"You called my house last night."
"I like the song you sang to me."
"Dr. Stansbury, my kids loved getting a personal message from you, especially the song."
Three of my parents were at a city council meeting. Their cell phones rang simultaneously. Throughout the chamber you could hear, "You better watch out. You better not pout."
I just love the personal touch School Reach has allowed my students and parents to experience.
Thank you so much.
Dr. Lois Stansbury
$25 Gift Card Winner
Elaine Reeder
Cheatham County Board of Education
This email is in response to your email to Debbie Thrash of Community Bank & Trust regarding the School Reach program purchased for the Cheatham County Board of Education. Your request asked for unique methods of communications to parents being used.
Community Bank & Trust is involved in this to the extent that we purchased the system for the Cheatham County Board of Education. WE do not have any communications with the parents as this is done by the Board of Education.
As a tidbit of background so you will understand our involvement:
We (Community Bank & Trust) have had a program called the "Distinguished Teacher Award Program" whereby we awarded one teacher from each public school in Cheatham County $1,000. The teachers were requested to submit a "Request Form" outlining their project to be funded, how many students it would benefit or affect, the amount needed along with a budget, and how they plan to continue to project.
Cheatham County School Superintendent, Lynn Siefert, contacted Debbie Thrash this year and asked that the bank consider underwriting the SchoolReach program for the Board of Education. After a couple of presentations and investigations and discussions, our Advisory Board agreed to put our Distinguished Teacher Award Program on hold and use the funds to underwrite this program as it would reach so many more students/families in our community.
The program seems to be working great for Cheatham County and we have heard some good comments from parents and other residents.
$25 Gift Card Winner
Kimberley A Peters
Philipsburg Osceola Area School District
This letter is to let you know how well SchoolReach has been working in our district! We had the unfortunate experience of having two bomb threats to investigate on the same morning at two different schools. These threats made communicating with our parents critical. Thanks to SchoolReach, we were able to send out several messages informing the parents of the situation at each school, when students were being sent home and when students could return to the building to pick up belongings, etc. We received many positive responses from parents about the effectiveness of SchoolReach and many thank yous for using the system to keep them informed.
I would also like to tell you about one of the more unique ways that our district has used your system. One day school was cancelled due to snow. Our junior high school principal, Bob Rocco, was receiving phone calls from many parents wondering what to do about the fundraiser pickup for the chorus that was scheduled to happen that day. A call from the director of the chorus prompted Mr. Rocco to have a message sent out to all students at the junior high to let them know that the fundraiser pickup would be the following day. Because using the system is so easy to use, the broadcast went out quickly and the phone calls stopped.
SchoolReach has made communicating all sorts of messages to our students and families such as closings, delays, reminders about events, etc easy and quick to do. SchoolReach is already in our budget for next year since it rapidly showed us how much it can impact communication in our district.
$25 Gift Card Winner
John Locker
Southwest Livingston County R-I School District
Date of Incident: January 18, 2007
I am a superintendent of a small school in northwest Missouri. The nearest 'large city' is Chillicothe which is about 15 miles away. I had the need to travel to Chillicothe one wintry day in January to purchase some survival items just in case the weather man was actually correct in his forecast for the next few days. On the way to town it began to snow rather heavily but I continued to travel to my destination of the almighty Walmart with the thought that I might be stranded there for the night -- wouldn't be too bad with all the food and TV's in there! It was about 9:00 p.m. and the thought had crossed my mind to call off school early enough so parents could make arrangements for their children and staff could stay up and watch Leno without the thought of getting up early but knew it would be quite late by the time I got home to use the internet. I also knew that I would have to leave my shopping spree earlier than I had planned. This leads to how modern technology comes in handy! I saw one of the teachers in the isle next to where I was shopping and discussed the situation with him which led to a consensus that it was too dangerous to have school the next day. I grabbed my cell phone from my hip and began the procedures to call all staff and students using the SchoolReach call system. Within a minute or two school was cancelled, parents were calling babysitters, students were cheering, the staff members were breathing a sigh of relief and I continued my shopping quest!!!! Thank God for the SchoolReach system!
This is a TRUE story.
$25 Gift Card Winner
Dave Burke
Epiphany Catholic School
Hi Friends at School Reach,
Our story is simple but important. When I began my position this summer as principal at a new school I had a slight problem. Our school is 95% hispanic and many of the parents do not speak English. Since I am not bi-lingual I was worried many of the parents would not be aware there was new leadership in the building and at a time when we were seeking enrollment I was worried this could have a negative effect. I sent a letter out in both English and Spanish but I was not sure of the results. Right before the school year was to begin we enrolled with school-reach and began a monthly habit of sending a call in both languages to encourage family participation at one of the Sunday Liturgies. The results have been overwhelming. The first meeting after Mass was a big success and every month since we have had super participation at the Sunday Family Mass. Our pastor said that the Family Mass had never had such good attendance. As a side note we had a slight increase in enrollment this year and we will be sending our bi-lingual message during Catholic Schools Week to have parents bring a friend with Children to our Open House. Thanks SchoolReach for helping us improve communication with our parents.