District Administration- August 2008 - (Page 43)

Valley Park (Mo.) School District staﬀ members, parents and students cut short their spring break last spring to help pile sandbags outside of buidings near river ﬂoodwaters. They also moved classroom and oﬃce materials from buildings’ lower levels to second ﬂoors to avoid ﬂood damage. istrators how to use the software. Most mass notiﬁcation companies maintain the district’s parental contact numbers in their own system so if school closes, district oﬃcials can access the system through the telephone or by logging on to the company’s Web site. Larger companies have multiple backup systems in case of a power outage. Text Messaging Having a variety of ways to contact parents in an emergency, including e-mail and texting, is optimal, because other methods can be faster when phones are jammed, says Houston Thompson, a public safety business development manager for CDW-G. Despite the fact that 31 percent of adults text daily, according to a Pew Research Center survey, schools say they are reluctant to use text messaging because it can be costly. Text messages can cost 10-20 cents each, although many phone companies oﬀer texting packages for about $5 a month. School oﬃcials say text messages must be short and less detailed than phone messages. Natasha Rabe, chief business oﬃcer for Connect-ED, believes that text messages also lack the personal touch of a phone call from the superintendent or principal. “The power of an authority ﬁgure’s personal voice really helps foster the long-term relationship between the school and the parent,” she says, because parents know they are getting information from a responsible person in charge in their school or district. Preventing Floods In March, the Meramec River in Missouri had swollen with rainwater and threat- PREPARED RESPONSE • $7,000-$12,000, depending on size of facility www.preparedresponse.com Prepared Response’s Rapid Responder is focused on providing mass notiﬁcation to the ﬁrst responders to an emergency, such as police and ﬁre departments. In the event of an emergency, administrators can use Rapid Responder, via a secure Internet connection or USB storage device, to instantly provide ﬁrst responders with critical school building information such as aerial views, interior and exterior photos, best access routes, ﬂoor plans, utility shut-offs, incident response plans, and family reuniﬁcation locations. REACT SYSTEMS • Pricing not available www.reactsystemsinc.com Designed mostly for larger venues such as corporations, public facilities, government institutions and hospitals, REACT can also be used by large school districts. It can be either fully hosted online or operate on an enterprise client server in an installed appliance. Key features include the scalability to grow from thousands to millions of contacts, the ability to contact ﬁrst responders with information and instructions, and the capability to display messages on digital signage monitors. REACT’s multimodal communications system also delivers communications to cell phones, pagers, Blackberry devices, internal and external phone systems, computer desktops and other devices. REACT is also capable of routine communications in addition to emergencies. SEND WORD NOW • Pricing not available www.sendwordnow.com Send Word Now’s Alert Service is a fully hosted Web-based service that is capable of mass communication through the widest variety of devices and services in the industry, including not only wired and wireless phones, e-mail and instant messaging, but also pagers, SMS (Short Message Service), MMS (Multimedia Message Service), VoIP, Skype, satellite phones, Blackberries and PDAs. Additional features include compatibility with enterprise software, auditing capabilities for accurate recordkeeping, compatibility with other SWN software programs, and enterprise-level encryption for security. SWN Alert Service also uses a Web-based user-friendly “dashboard” control designed for quick use in an emergency, is scalable to allow for growth, and can coordinate simultaneous events in multiple locations. SCHOOLMESSENGER • $1-$3 per student per year www.schoolmessenger.com SchoolMessenger provides three choices of phone and e-mail notiﬁcation solutions for school district applications of various sizes. ASP Plus is fully hosted and can serve an entire district or a single school. CommSuite is an installed appliance for use in a large-scale enterprise environment. The SchoolMessenger Desktop is the smallest product, a plug-and-play device that uses existing computers and phone lines to send messages, but only in a single school. SchoolMessenger applications can be integrated with systems like Cisco and 3Com, translate into multiple languages, and interface with more than 130 data management packages. SchoolMessenger also offers 24/7/365 customer service, support and monitoring. SCHOOLREACH • $2.50 per student per year www.schoolreach.com A fully hosted, Web-based system designed for school districts, SchoolReach sends audio and text broadcasts via phone calls, text messages. www.DistrictAdministration.com August 2008 43 http://www.preparedresponse.com http://www.reactsystemsinc.com http://www.schoolmessenger.com http://www.sendwordnow.com http://www.schoolreach.com http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration- August 2008

District Administration - August 2008
Contents
Editor's Letter
Letters
News Update
Curriculum
English Language
8th Annual Salary Survey
Do You Know the Drill?
The Evolution of Notification Systems
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem Solutions
Technology Books
Profession Opinion
Supervisor's Opinion
Crisis Response
Speaking Out
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration- August 2008