As a leading provider of parent notification service supporting thousands of schools coast-to-coast, our clients use of our service frequently makes headline news. Below is a summary of some of the stories about SchoolReach making the papers, journals and other publications.
A significant milestone was passed in August 2010, when the Missouri Alert Network entered into its 4th year of operation. The state-wide alert program stemmed from a public-private cooperative effort between the Missouri Department of Public Safety (MO DPS), the Missouri School Boards Association (MSBA) and GroupCast, LLC.
The parent notification and school emergency messaging abilities for thousands of schools have been increased with release of SchoolReach 3.0. New interface speeds parent notifications and alerts.
The city of Clarksville, MO sent out a GroupCast alert notifying residents that they were under a boil order. Recipients of the message were advised not only to boil water but also to come to a specific location to get potable or bottled water from the city.
Minnesota-based volunteer network, RSVP, used the GroupCast instant notification system to help an elderly woman this winter. She was in dire circumstances as her furnace stopped working and it was 26 degrees below zero outside.
Parents at Kingsley Junior High School in Normal, IL were alerted to the sudden death of a 7th grader via a SchoolReach alert sent by a school official. The student had collapsed after what school officials called friendly "horseplay" in the lavatory between class periods.
The National Rural Education Association, it its monthly membership newsletter, spotlighted the SchoolReach EZ Lunch Balance program as means to help school districts manage lunch debt.
The SchoolReach parent notification system has announced an expanded partnership with the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center (Greenbush). Through the partnership agreement, the SchoolReach parent notification system will be made available to all Kansas schools at an exclusive discount.
Service Center to use Automated Notification System to Improve Communications with Member Districts plus Extends Special Pricing and Terms to Member Districts
The District will also utilize a system called SchoolReach. SchoolReach allows parent/guardian contact phone numbers to be called automatically by a voice.
To ensure rapid communication to parents on the H1N1 virus, the Washington School District is participating in a notification program being offered by the Missouri School Boards Association and SchoolReach Instant Parent Contact.
For Brenda Speer, superintendent of Bynum Independent School District, striking a balance between cutting expenses, but not eliminating important programs and services, lit up the light bulb over her head: Would it be possible to save the district more than $700 a month in postage expenses alone by implementing a tech-based parental notification system?
Broadcast or mass notification systems enable administrators to efficiently place hundreds or even thousands of calls per hour and, to an extent, replace other communication vehicles, such as newsletters, Web site postings, or the weekly distribution of manila envelopes.
Beginning this fall, parents of Mineral County School students will be able to receive notices of school closings or other emergencies almost instantaneously, thanks to SchoolReach, the fastest-growing parental notification service used among K-12 public schools in the United States.
SchoolReach, the fastest-growing parent notification service used among K-12 public schools in the United States, has been chosen by Magazine Public Schools to implement the SchoolReach Instant Parent Contact system.
Nine schools in the Catholic Diocese of Savannah — including three in Middle Georgia — are turning to an automated phone messaging system to notify parents of emergencies.
What started out as a prank phone call could end with serious consequences for two Fulton teens after they made a bomb threat regarding Fulton High School Tuesday afternoon.
How does a retailer morph the inadvertent selling of dangerous products and its dusty CRM program into a public relations victory? The answer is as old as the telephone. In fact, the answer is the telephone.
MT. VERNON -- At least two area schools have signed on to a new service which is designed to send out notifications to parents electronically.
SchoolReach is an instant parent contact program which has been purchased by District 80 and by the Mt. Vernon Township High School. Emergency announcements and general information calls can be made within minutes to large groups of people, according to Christine Skillian of School Reach.
Gov. Matt Blunt today announced all public and independent higher education institutions have an official contact on file with the Missouri Alert Network, fulfilling another recommendation from his Campus Security Task Force to improve communication to make our colleges and universities safer.
Although the gas leak near Cold Springs schools was just hot air, the scenario used during a mock emergency drill Monday made sure students and school officials were ready for the real deal.
Officials said students, teacher and administrators were able to rise to the occasion, evacuating the school quickly.
GroupCast Messaging systems, a leader in the emerging automated call notification industry, has partnered with the Crocker School District to implement GroupCast’s SchoolReach system. The SchoolReach system, already in use in many school districts nationwide, was designed to provide a recorded message from a school official to parents for emergency purposes or for a general announcement.
A bomb threat at Pikeland Community school tested the emergency response of both school administrators and law enforcement Monday afternoon. A note of threatening nature was found near the end of the school day Monday at Pikeland Community School. The note was found in the northern pod of the building. The northern pod houses sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The note said a bomb would go off at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Miles of closures and major renovation along a highway used to ferry thousands of children to school could mean countless delays over two years. But the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation is helping parents by sending pre-recorded messages on traffic delays.
Governor Matt Blunt has announced that colleges and universities in Missouri are now eligible to sign up for the Missouri Alert Network. The network allows state officials to notify schools throughout Missouri within minutes in the event of an emergency or an extraordinary situation that impacts student safety and security. The program is the result of a partnership between the state of Missouri and the Missouri School Boards’ Association.
In the past, parents were forced to wake up early in order to watch a scrolling message at the bottom of their television screen to find out if school was canceled. If the weather causes school closings this week, parents in the North Callaway School District and the Missouri School for the Deaf will receive a call from their child's principal letting them know.
A new emergency evacuation plan was put to the test at Hillsboro Primary School Tuesday, as 880 kindergarten, first and second graders were evacuated after a small kitchen fire. The plan included using the SchoolReach system to notify parents.
When inclement weather forces cancellations or emergencies strike, the Easton School District can call parents and students quickly thanks to a new communication system. The SchoolReach System allows administrators to notify parents in a matter of minutes, eliminating clumsy telephone trees and announcements run by the media.
If it is necessary to announce a snow day in Jefferson County, many public and private school officials turn to the SchoolReach system to spread the word. The system, from GroupCast Messaging systems, provides a recorded message from a school official to parents for emergency purposes or for a general announcement. The announcement is sent to a list of families simultaneously.
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.
A new system designed to contact Unit 5 parents and guardians in an emergency worked fairly well in its first real use. Parents generally said they were pleased about being notified about an incident involving what could have been a weapon.
Since the days of the one-room schoolhouse, parents have been subject to the grind of the rumor mill.
Back then, rumors spread slowly, but with today's close-knit, electronically connected parent communities, rumors spread rapidly and become a source of major frustration for school administrators. With thousands of minor incidents each year in schools across the country, abating gossip is part of a school administrator's job. This can be even more nerve-racking than the actual event.
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.
Contacting the parents of Lindbergh School District student in an emergency will soon be made easier by a new call system to be provided by SchoolReach.
The Lindbergh School District has approved SchoolReach, a division of St. Louis-based GroupCast Messaging Systems LLC, to provide a call system in which parents can be alerted quickly about a district emergency or an incident at a single building.
Parents of St. Louis area and other Midwestern cities woke up to a phone call their kids wanted to receive and the parents didn’t – a school snow closing announcement delivered by SchoolReach, the education service division of St. Louis based GroupCast messaging.
Computer-generated phone calls that allowed three Meramec Valley School District principals to remind parents of registration day was a hit with parents and administrators.
SchoolReach allows schools to target a specific group of parents or students from the school computer database, record a 30-second message and have the calls made simultaneously.
Every school has undoubtedly had the need - or thought about it - to contact large groups of parents at the same time, often as quickly as possible. It may just be a late change in a meeting or event schedule, but it could involve a more urgent notification, such an unplanned dismissal due to weather, power outage, or school evacuation.