Full-day K worth Jessamine taxpayers' dollars

Comment by Shark88: Friday, September 3

Ms. Dragomir, you can donate from your own personal funds to help the schools out. It is a free co...read more...

Fiscal court buys Nicholasville Cafe building

Comment by Shark88: Friday, September 3

So the state is forcing the county to build a justice center? When does that have to be built?...read more...

Defending First Amendment rights different from endorsing message

Comment by tweldon: Thursday, September 2

For weeks I have grown so accustomed to writing acerbic retorts to Leland Conway’s columns with wh...read more...

» Read more recent story comments
» Register for your account

If you answer your phone and hear an automated message on the other end, you might be inclined to angrily throw the receiver down and curse telemarketers or political campaigning. But with the installation of a new communication system in the school district, parents of Jessamine County students may want to stay on the line.

Jessamine County schools will begin using an automated phone message service called One Call Now as early as next week to notify parents about important situations at schools such as emergencies or early dismissals. Messages will always begin by identifying the caller as Jessamine County schools.

Paul Hamann, the district’s chief operations officer, said East Jessamine High School has been using the system for a year and that after that “pilot” program, the service was purchased for the entire district. He said the system is ready to use but that parents would be notified before any messages were sent.

“It actually is operational; it’s ready to go,” he said. “But we don’t just want to surprise [parents] with it, so we’re going to send home a flier with the students and say, ‘You’re going to be getting a phone call.’”

Parents will receive a flier in the mail next week alerting them to the installation of the system and will also receive a phone call with a similar message. The system will use phone numbers for each student from the student information system; at a later date, parents will be able to access a link on the district Web site and change the phone number or add additional phone numbers.

Hamann said the service would be useful in extreme emergency situations and in more mundane logistical issues.

“It will really be useful on such things as early dismissals,” he said. “If we’re having bad weather and we have to tell everybody that the school is going to dismiss two hours early, then it’s a nice way that we can communicate that quickly ... The primary purpose, of course, is in the event of emergencies to alert as many people as quickly as possible.”

Superintendent Lu Young said she was excited about having another way to communicate with families.

“If the weather turns bad after school has already started, that’s a really handy way for me to get word out to parents,” Young said. “It always worries me that parents might not know that we’re dismissing early, so we try every avenue we can, and this one is a direct call, so I think that will be very helpful.”

Although the system will only carry global messages to the entire district at its inception, the potential exists for leaders at individual schools to use the system to contact only their students.

“Individual teachers can actually have their own classes on there; they can send out a reminder to students that they have a project due the next day,” Hamann said. “Athletic teams can use it if they want to send out messages to their parents ... it creates a lot of options.”

In emergency situations like the October mercury spill at West Jessamine High School, Hamann said the service would be able to provide credible information to parents so they could stay calm.

“I think it can go a long way to diffusing the anxiety of parents if they can just receive a message that says, ‘Here’s the situation; everything’s under control,’” he said. “You know how the rumor mill gets going, and even though it is an automated message, I think a lot of times that can at least help minimize their initial angst in situations. That’s its primary value.”

Although phone calls are the primary medium, the service will eventually allow parents to also receive messages by e-mail or text messaging as it is used to greater and greater extent, Hamann said.

“It will be a gradual process as we add features,” he said. “But ultimately, it’s going to be great.”

Story comments

No comments on this article yet.

Posting comments on this web site requires free registration.

• Create your account
• Log in to your account