E-mail broadcast notification for school
My kids go to a small private school, so, perhaps larger school systems already have something like this in place, but, one thing that drives me crazy as a working parent is that school-wide urgent communication occurs at my home.
The home without people in it during the day to answer the phone.
Sure, there’s a phone tree, but, no matter what I do to indicate otherwise, the call to me inevitably comes to my home. My cell phone doesn’t get reception inside my workplace, but, the calls never come to it, anyway.
So, not only have I missed the information, I have also broken the phone tree chain and I get accused of all sorts of stereotypical things about working mothers.
I would love to see some sort of e-mail communication system to notify people when there’s news from school. For example, when you work, it’s often not possible to watch television coverage of the weather, or, check a website frequently, but, you can get e-mails at your desk.
I know it can be done, but, it represents a change to the routine that schools sometimes don’t want to do. But, something’s going to have to change so that working parents can be updated in a timely manner, and, aren’t penalized for not being at home by the phone.
My grandson goes to a small rural school and they have an e-mail notification system for early school closings for inclement weather or other announcements of urgency. They also have a web site which lists things of interest, where announcements are posted regarding letters sent home from school which are sometimes left in lockers, backpacks, etc. (your children probably don’t do that???), sports schedules, etc. But I do know it can be done and, as I said, we are a small county with only two public schools – an elementary school and a middle/high school – and probably not a lot of funds for something like this so I don’t think there’s a large cost. I think all you really need is someone at the school who would be interested in doing this.
I think Nana’s correct about the school needing someone who would be interested – and capable, I’d add – of handling parent notifications in a more technologically modern manner. One of my husband’s biggest complaints about his kids’ schools, as well as their district in general, is that they have websites that NEVER GET UPDATED. More and more of us are used to going to the Internet or the inbox for our information, and I think the schools need to catch up.
My kids also go to a smaller private school and as of now they still rely on the phone tree but they call the numbers provided by the parents but I would also prefer they move to e-mail. Of course, I have an advantage since hubby works there I find out information that way but I would not be happy if I didn’t have that in.
Some Colleges are just getting with these types of programs (and they are only doing it in response to the violence recently), so I am not surprised that grammar schools are even slower in this regard.
However, it should (theoretically) be within the capabilities of the Class Parent to do notifications in this manner for those that want/need it. But alas, thus far it seems at least around here, that it is the luddite that always seems to be the one in charge.
Oh, I know, what about calling home and checking your messages? Nah….takes too much common sense.