District considers adding $33,000 system to increase
attendance
Imagine as a parent of a school-age child you could receive voice messages from your child’s school about upcoming events, the school attendance office alerting you your child is absent without an excuse, or that an emergency situation has caused a school lockdown.
“Connect-Ed was founded by a parent who missed his daughter’s back-to-school night,” said Dana Aiken, a company spokesperson presenting the system to the School Board Monday night. “We are utilizing the power of the human voice.”
Aiken explained the system, which would cost approximately $33,000 per year for the district, would not require any new hardware or software. Basically, officials in the district – the superintendent, principals, administrators – would have an electronic password that would allow them to access the system and create messages for distribution to student phone numbers. The message could be sent district-wide, school-wide, or to a specific population, such as Special Ed, GATE or English Language Learning students.
The system has the capacity to store up to six numbers for each student, Aiken said.
“The most effective way we have seen this utilized is no more than two or three messages to parents a month,” Aiken said. “Things like school events, back-to-school messages, reminders about student testing. Of course, for emergency purposes and attendance, this is an invaluable system.”
Superintendent Alan Nishino arranged for the presentation, as he had been looking into the system for his former school district in Alameda. He arranged for Aiken to present the system to Morgan Hill principals during their recent leadership meetings.
“Most of the principals I talked to were pretty enthusiastic about it,” Nishino told school board trustees Monday night as they watched the presentation from Connect-Ed’s Aiken.
“Both Nick (Boden, Live Oak High principal) and I were excited about it,” Sobrato High Principal Rich Knapp said Monday night. “If we had the system now, one of the first ways I would use it would be to send out a survey asking how many planned to attend back-to-school night … As for the attendance uses, this would be a much, much better, more efficient way to do it.”
The system would allow the district to send out phone messages asking parents to “vote” by pushing buttons on their phone on issues such as attending back-to-school night or other issues the district might want to get a sense of how parents feel before making decisions.
If Morgan Hill School Board trustees vote to approve the system, communication in the district could greatly increase.
“We have found that the impact of hearing the voice message, with all the nuances of speech, is much more powerful than a written reminder,” said Aiken.
Cell phones around the room bleated as Aiken tested the system, using phone numbers of several of the trustees and administrators in the room. Trustee Mike Hickey held his phone up to his microphone so the message, which was transmitted over the airwaves a mere minute before, could be heard in the room.
Trustees seemed impressed. Most questions raised concerned privacy issues, which Aiken assured them were not a problem with the system.
Nishino said district staff would talk with principals to determine the level of interest at the school sites before implementing the system.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@mo*************.com.
