RISD gets new call-out system

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July 15, 2006

By David Wilfong The Zope Gazette Sat Jul 15, 2006, 12:48 PM CDT

June 30, 2006 — The Rockwall Independent School District is set to roll out a new emergency call-out system with the next school year.

The system, supplied by Family First Alerts, will provide administrators with a one-touch method of reaching the parents of all students in the district or a particular school in the event of an emergency, as well as offering teachers a tool for maintaining communication with parents in regard to educational matters.

“We’re beginning by sending notices to parents to register for the service,” said RISD Director of Technology Chris Gasaway. “They can go online and log in their preference as to how they want to be notified. For parents that don’t have a computer, they can come to the computer lab at the district office, or register by paper.

“They can receive voice messages, text messages, or e-mail. They will choose their order of preference. If the first receives no response then it will send the message again by their second choice. This system is capable of sending out 60,000 messages in a time frame of 10 to 15 minutes.

“The first phase of this is to notify parents of an emergency situation. If, for example, there is a lock-down at Dobbs or if there is a fire, one of the approved people in the district can send a message will go out saying ‘There’s been a fire at the school, all the students are safe. Please pick up your kids’.”

Along with the possibility of a campus emergency, the system will also be advantageous for when unexpected occurrences happen during school-sponsored events.

“If there is a field trip where the bus breaks down, the driver will be able to use a cell phone to send out a message, ‘The bus has broken down and will be two hours late’ or whatever,” Gasaway said. “It will also be a way of notifying parents about bad weather days.”

Gasaway also points out that the call-out system will be able to send messages in several languages, including Spanish, so that the parents of a student can receive their information in the language that is most used in their own home.

According to Gasaway, the system will be implemented in phases. The emergency notification, which includes field trip groups, will be available at the beginning of the school year.

A second phase will be added approximately two months after that to send out reminders for community events such as PTA meetings and notices.

A third phase of the system will be made available to individual teachers to accommodate for reminders concerning classroom instruction and homework assignments.

“That part of the program is not 100 percent worked out yet,” Gasaway said. “But the system definitely has the capability to do that.”

Family First Alerts is based in California, but has been working with school districts in Texas since at least February of last year. All of the equipment necessary for this web-based service is located and maintained by the California firm. This was noted as an advantage over some of the competing services looked at by the district.

“We’ve been kicking this idea around for about a year now,” Gasaway said. “I did a lot of research, then sent out the (request for bids). The district then chose our vendor from there.”

The contract covers the entire district at a rate of three dollars per student. At the time the bid was made, that rate would cost the district a total of $36,189. Official enrollment figures for the upcoming school year will need to be received before the actual cost can be assessed.

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