MCCSC implementing new emergency notification system similar to IU’s

The Monroe County Community School Corporation has implemented a new system to help parents and guardians receive notifications regarding their children’s well-being while at school.

The new system, Family Access Skylert, allows parents to decide what kind of notifications they want to receive as well as how they receive them. The available delivery methods include cell phone, work phone or email.

The system alerts parents if their child’s lunch account is approaching a low balance. The system also works to notify parties of cancellations, emergency situations and school absences.  

Parents have the option not to receive the notifications, however will always be notified regarding a child’s unaccounted absence and emergency school safety matters.

Ann Boehm, a MCCSC parent, said there could be improvements to the communication between the schools and the parents. She said the Board of Trustees will direct parents to search for information newspapers, but Boehm said busy parents don’t always have time to pick one up.

“If that’s your means of communication, it’s not sufficient,” she said.

She said the schools should be sending home more notices and prioritize the information that is released, citing that she will receive multiple notices in a week that her child’s lunch account is below $10, but said parents often find out about school board information and school changes at the last minute.

Some parents at the most recent board meeting complained about late notice of the proposed school calendar changes.

Boehm said this information could be easily added to periodic newsletters.

As for emergencies, she said she feels her children are safe and said the school. The school sent home notices telling parents about a lock down practice, as well as what information was going to be made available to children about the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Conn. in December.

She said she approves of the corporation’s overall safety plans.

The IU system also utilizes quick electronic communication practices to help IU students stay informed.

Debbi Fletcher, director of emergency management and continuity for the University, said IU creates all messages that are sent to students. The messages are sent to a vendor that actually performs the task of distribution.

Fletcher said officials can send messages both online and through phone calls, in case one or the other would be unavailable in the case of an emergency.

The televisions throughout the campus can also be updated to display messages.
She said when a situation occurs, they assess and decide what medium is best to inform students and staff. Text messages are the fastest way to get the word out, followed by email, she said.

Fletcher said in a true emergency, they use every medium to disseminate information, such as the incident where gunshots were reported on the IU-Bloomington campus in Oct. 2011.

In that situation, a message was sent out saying “Possible shooting on campus. Shooter at large. Get inside your home, lock your windows and doors, wait for further notification.”

She said there are some message templates so only items such as places and dates need to be changed and messages can be delivered at a faster rate.

Fletcher said they are always looking for ways to improve the system and ultimately hope to be able to send one message to every medium simultaneously.  

“We’re constantly looking for new technology,” she said.