Mon School Administrators Learn Alert System: ParentLink Should Be Up and Running in a Couple Weeks

By Tracy Eddy, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

Jan. 25–School administrators in Monongalia County spent Thursday afternoon leaning over laptop computers while they learned the ins and outs of ParentLink, the Web-based communication system recently adopted by the county school system.

ParentLink is designed to notify parents of emergency situations, early dismissals and school cancelations, as well as other activities at their child’s school.

It will also notify parents when their children are marked absent from school.

The system can be used wherever the administrators can use the Internet; they simply log on to the ParentLink Web site and type in their user name and password.

Nancy Napolillo, director of technology and secondary services, and Mike Scalzo, a ParentLink trainer, conducted the sessions for several school principals, secretaries and the superintendents.

Two sessions were held in the technology lab at Westwood Middle School, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Training sessions will also be held today, with the morning session beginning at 9 a.m.

Everyone at the session was given a thick training manual and a sheet of paper highlighting all the basic steps.

The administrators were given a log-in name and a password, and learned to send messages two different ways.

ParentLink has a list of existing messages about attendance, report cards, parent teacher conferences or field trips.

To send one of them, the administrator clicks on the message format and fills in a date and time.

The administrators can also pick a specific time and date to send the message, as well as to whom they’re sending the message, such as other administrators, parents from a specific school, or the parents from all the county’s schools.

The system then telephones the number listed for the parent.

Scalzo said the system will try the number at least six times if the phone isn’t answered by a person’s voice or an answering machine.

If an answering machine picks up, ParentLink will leave a message.

The system can make 1,000 calls in four or five minutes, Scalzo said.

Administrators can create custom messages, and instead of the automated voice used for the existing messages, parents will hear the administrator’s voice when they answer the phone.

To create custom messages, administrators must call ParentLink and record their message over the phone.

Napolillo, Scalzo and Chris Urban, an integration technology specialist, wandered around the room helping the administrators and secretaries when they, or their computers, got stuck.

During the training, administrators created practices messages and sent them to their cell phones.

The technology lab had poor cell phone reception, so many of the secretaries and principals were leaning close to the windows bordering the back wall of the room, or stepping into the hallway to hear the messages.

After going through the training, Karen Church, principal of Clay-Battelle High School, said she found the system to be very user friendly.

“I think it’s a wonderful system,” Church said. “It’s quick and efficient, which is important.”

Jim Napolillo, principal of Suncrest Middle School, has already experienced what ParentLink can do.

His wife, Nancy, who had been trained on the system, used it a couple of weeks ago to alert parents that bomb threats had been made toward the school.

Within four minutes, 500 parents had been notified, he said.

“It worked great,” Napolillo said. “I had about 30 or 40 parents come up to me and thank me for that way that was handled.”

Nancy Napolillo said the system should be up and running in a few weeks.

Meantime, schools will be sending notes home with the students, telling parents how they can log on to the system.

In the note, parents will be given a log-in name and password. After logging on, they can change the password to something they can remember, Napolillo said.

Parents who don’t have access to a computer or the Internet can fill out the bottom portion of the note with their name, their child’s name, their home phone number and address, and return it to the office.

Napolillo said the administration will set up accounts for those parents, so they can be notified of any messages by telephone.

After logging on to the site, parents will be able to list the phone numbers at which they would like to be called, and the best times to call a work or cell phone number.

Parents will be responsible for keeping their contact information updated, Napolillo said. “Our largest concern is making sure we have accurate phone numbers for everyone. We need clean data for this to work the best it can.”

Teachers and other school staff will get user names and passwords too, so they can go online and update their contact information.

Napolillo said teachers will be allowed to send messages over ParentLink, but all messages must first go through their principal.

Superintendent Frank Devono said he’s looking forward to using ParentLink. “I think the options are endless. It’s an excellent tool for us to communicate with our parents.”

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