Pembina Hills is expanding a text messaging service previously used at two high schools to the entire school division this fall, with the intent that the service will also be used to inform parents about emergency situations.
On Sept. 18, a division news article was posted to the Pembina Hills website informing parents that they could now sign up for the service known as SchoolMessenger.
The article stated that both schools and the division would use the service to contact parents quickly and efficiently, which would be especially important if some emergency arose.
This text messaging service would be activated on Sept. 24. Parents would receive a text message inviting them to opt in if their child’s school had their cell number on file; otherwise, they could also sign up before Sept. 24 by text “Y” or “Yes” to 978338. Standard text message and data rates may apply.
Pam Golden, co-ordinator of communications at Pembina Hills, said they had sent out “opt-in” text messages to 3,680 parents.
As of 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 24 — four hours after activating SMS/text — about 1,750 had chosen to opt-in, which works out to 47 per cent of parents. Fifteen people had opted out.
Overnight, they had another 100 opt-ins and one additional opt-out, said Golden, adding, “So already we’ve had a great response from parents and staff.”
It should be noted that SchoolMessenger isn’t a new creation of Pembina Hills. Golden said 48 of the 63 public school divisions throughout Alberta utilize SchoolMessenger, and it is also employed at school jurisdictions across Canada and the U.S.
In fact, R.F. Staples School in Westlock and Barrhead Composite High School have utilized SchoolMessenger over the past several years to send out general communications and to report absenteeism by students to parents.
Golden noted they are also piloting an add-on to SchoolMessenger called “Safe Arrival” this fall. This add-on will allow parents the ability to report their child’s absence from school via a toll-free phone number, a smartphone app or the division website.
“The ultimate goal of Safe Arrival is to enhance student safety while also saving schools time and money in reconciling daily attendance. We hope that Safe Arrival is something that our parents will utilize,” Golden said.
