When Hillside Middle School in Simi Valley, CA, had to close last fall because of fires raging through the area, Principal Steve Pietrolungo was able to keep more than 700 parents informed about fire-related events through an e-mail list developed for the school's online newsletter. During the aftermath of hurricane Isabel, parents of students at Trinity Episcopal School in Richmond, VA, were able to access information about school closings and reopenings through notices posted on the school's website in addition to information about television and radio stations that were broadcasting closure updates. Shortly after the school installed an automated message system, a bomb threat was called into the office at Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School in Montebello, CA. Principal David Chambers notified the authorities and took steps to ensure that students were safe. he then drafted and sent a message to all parents via the school's automated dialing system. Within minutes parents knew the facts about the bomb threat and were reassured that their children were safe and that the situation was being handled.

No matter how proactive educators may be, there will always be times during the year when unforeseen events make it imperative that parents be notified about an episode on campus, an emergency school closure, or some other incident. Printed notices take time to generate and often are buried in backpacks or tossed into wastebaskets. Many schools are turning to automated calling systems, once targeted primarily for checking on absent students and setting up homework hotlines, and e-mail listservs when they need to get accurate information to parents quickly.

Communication Tools

A variety of solutions are available to educators who want to use e-mail or telephone systems to communicate important information to parents. If a large enough percentage of the school's parents have e-mail access so that it's practical to rely on a listserv as a means of communication, it's usually possible to establish parent and staff e-mail lists using the existing e-mail system. However, in many instances more families have telephones than Internet access, leading schools to use automated dialing systems with e-mail as a secondary communication method. Here are three popular telephone-based systems.

PACE, Partnership for Academic a Community Excellence: www.paceamerica.net

PACE uses the existing telephone system and Internet access to allow school staff to record, send, and track telephone messages. Users log onto the secure PACE website, record a message over the telephone, identify message recipients (e.g., staff members, parents), and schedule a time for message delivery. The sender later receives an e-mail message reporting who answered the phone in person, whose message was received by an answering machine, and who was not reached. For those times users want a message to reach everyone in the database, it's possible to record a message and schedule a delivery time using just the telephone. Pricing is based upon number of students and volume of use, ranging from $3 to $13 per student. PACE offers a sponsorship program where businesses and parent groups can help defray the cost to the school. More than 1,250 schools and districts currently subscribe to the service. You can learn more about the system, hear sample messages recorded by actual users, and download case studies by visiting the site.

SchoolMessenger Communications System, Reliance Communications, Inc.: www.schoolmessenger.com

SchoolMessenger Communications Systems are available for both site-based and centralized configurations. The site-based system, SchoolMessenger Desktop Calling System, is USB plug-and-play featuring multi-language messaging, automated calling, e-mail, and reporting. SchoolMessenger Communication Suite, the centralized system for use with multiple school sites through a diocesan office of education, uses carrier-class hardware and integrated software. In addition to the site-based capabilities, the suite enables users to access other Web-based features. The website highlights success stories and offers sample messages. The cost for a one-line system is approximately $2,400, increasing with additional capabilities. SchoolMessenger Communi-cations Systems are installed in thousands of U.S. schools and send more than 250 million messages to parents each year.

PhoneMaster, US Netcom Corp.: www.usnetcomcorp .com

US Netcom Corporation targets several types of business and education communications needs, offering three products useful to schools or centralized offices of education. PhoneMaster for Windows and Web and PhoneMaster Professional enable users to communicate with parents and other staff members using the phone system and a computer. PhoneMaster for Windows and Web features include four-line automated phone and e-mail messaging, a 24-hour information line, voicemail, and text-to-speech messaging. PhoneMaster Professional can send messages using 2 to 1,000 phone lines. Features include an integrated voice mail system, text-to-speech messaging, automated surveys, and more. EasyCaller has an optional Windows or Mac interface which is useful for downloading data files of phone numbers, but can work with or without a computer. This 4-line system makes up to 300 calls per hour and can deliver 9 different messages. Visit the website to learn more about each system and to read some of the education success stories. Thousands of schools in the U.S. and around the world use US Netcom systems. Costs vary, depending upon the system: EasyCaller, $1,500-$4,000; PhoneMaster for Windows and Web, $3,000-$5,500; and PhoneMaster Professional, $6,000 and up. A new Web-based Emergency Service Bureau will be available in the near future. For approximately $1 per student per year, schools' databases can be housed in US Netcom's home office and school officials can generate emergency announcements simply by picking up the phone.

Before Making a Purchase

There are several points that must be considered before choosing and implementing a technology-based communication system. The school's technology committee or another appropriate group must do some homework. First, the committee should gather specific data about the school community's access to telephones and the Internet. Next, since many automated calling systems have the capability of transmitting messages in multiple languages, the committee should identify the primary language spoken in each student's home to develop a list of languages required. It's also important to find out parents' preferences for telephone contact (home or work, day or evening) and whether they prefer e-mail or phone contact. Some parents are unable to receive personal calls at work except in extreme emergencies, while other parents prefer to have calls made or e-mails sent to their businesses during the day so that their children cannot intercept them. Gathering this information will help the committee determine the type of system and the features needed to best serve the school and parents.

At this point, the entire school staff should be brought into the discussion to decide how much effort they are willing to make in system implementation. Who will use the system and for what purpose? Does the committee envision a tool primarily for office staff use? Will teachers be asked to assume responsibilities related to system use, and, if so, what kind of time commitment will be required? It's easy to define limited use such as rumor control, school closure announcements, emergency announcements, or student absence verification because most of this responsibility lies with the office. However, automated messaging systems have broader applications as well. For example, teachers can set up homework hotlines, maintain online grade reports, and share other classroom news with parents. Schools can also make regular announcements about extra curricular activities such as clubs or sports, special events, and fund raisers. Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School, mentioned earlier in this article, has also had great success increasing parent participation in Back-to-School Night by using the school's automated system to send parents reminder messages about the event. In another instance, Principal David Chambers sent out a message regarding a food drive sponsored by the school, and within hours parents were bringing bags and boxes of food to the office. But in order to expand use in this way, staff members must agree to be regular users themselves in order to make the system pay off.