System links school, parents

May 24, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - For nearly a month now, more than 10,000 Mat-Su residents have received phone messages from a powerful new computer system named ConnectED.

ConnectED is a $70,000 technology that transforms the way schools communicate with parents and guardians of students in the Mat-Su Borough School District.

When firing on all cylinders, ConnectED can call nearly 10,000 phone numbers within 15 minutes, relaying specific messages directly to the home.

That kind of high-speed communication enables the school district to issue last-minute announcements, school-closure notices, and student absences without relying on photo-copied handouts and paper slips that often wind up on the school bus floor or blowing across the school parking lot.

"It enhances our ability to quickly connect with families," said Kim Floyd, information specialist for the MSB School District. "When you're dealing with an elementary school of 500 students, you're dealing with 250 families at least."

So far this year,

the district has used ConnectED to relay emergency information, year-end announcements, graduation

information and daily school attendance information when kids don't show up for class.

"If your kid is absent, you should get a notice," Floyd said.

When calling individual phone numbers, ConnectED keeps track of answered calls, calls that go to voice messages, bad phone numbers and busy signals. ConnectED can also be fairly determined when it comes to getting a message across. If it fails to contact people at home it can also call them on their cell phones or at work.

By allowing the district to communicate the same message to every household, it makes it easier to respond to wild rumors and inaccurate information.

"It makes [communication] more accurate because everyone is receiving the same message," Floyd said.

The program, which is currently used by about 3,500 school districts, nationwide, allows individual schools to send specialized messages to specific students from certain classrooms.

While ConnectED certainly enhances the school district's communication capabilities, it is not without its controversies and questions have been raised about the proper use of the new technology.

On April 24 the first ConnectED message went out to nearly every household in the district, according to Floyd. In that brief message, Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle introduced ConnectED and then promptly told people that the Mat-Su Borough manager had recommended that the borough assembly cut $4 million from the school district's requested budget for FY06.

The message alerted parents that if the borough approved the manager's budget, the district would be forced to cut teaching positions and dramatically increase class sizes.

Several borough assembly members and Mat-Su Borough Mayor Tim Anderson took issue with the district's use of ConnectED, suggesting that it crossed the line between information sharing and political posturing, especially since

a final budget is only

established by assembly member votes - not

the borough manager's recommendations.

The district maintains it was simply informing the public about the possible consequences of the borough's proposed budget.

At Wednesday's school board meeting, several board members said they thought the proper uses of ConnectED needed to be clarified.

Member Sarah Welton voiced concern about ConnectED being used for purposes that may be considered political lobbying and criticized Doyle's message as coming across as a "political club."

Members Linda Menard and Jeff Trotter also expressed concern about the wording and tone of Doyle's message.

Members Robert Wells and Larry DeVilbiss, however, said they had no problem with the message. DeVilbiss did argue, though, that guidelines should be established to avoid any problems in the future.

"It seems like there needs to be some direction from the board on this," he said.

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266, or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.