New Alert System Possible Purchase for Armstrong School District

by Jonathan Weaver

Parents across the Armstrong School District should be able to readily depend on an automated message alert system during a school emergency, snow delay or school cancellation next school if school directors approve a different provider.

At their regular monthly meeting Monday night, school district board directors will vote on the proposal to enter into an agreement with SchoolMessenger notification system rather than the current AlertNow system.

Director of Technology & Information Services Anthony Grenda explained why he recommended a change.

“We were using AlertNow for the past five or six years until another company – Blackboard – bought them and forced us to move to their product,” Grenda said. “During a couple of our initial calls with the new system, we had some trouble with the calls going out.

“It’s too much money to pay to not have good support. I was really worried if there was a true emergency and we couldn’t get the calls out.”

AlertNow, which was acquired by Blackboard, customers would have transitioned to Blackboard’s Connect 5 product.

After reviewing three or four other products, Grenda is recommending a contract with SchoolMessenger, a subsidiary of the Omaha, Neb. firm West Corporation.

Grenda lauded SchoolMessenger’s capacity for support and said some additional features will be available for staff – including a computer-based system for teacher computers and the ability to send messages about upcoming events.

“I’ve talked to multiple districts that are using it. The district that I’m in – Seneca Valley – is using it, and it works great. I’ve never had a problem,” Grenda said. “I think (parents) are going to see an improvement in the amount of calls that go out. I don’t think you’re going to see nearly as many failures.”

The service will be able to call parents or send alerts via text message or e-mail if provided.

During the next three years, SchoolMessenger would be available at a cost of about $6,800 – about half the cost AlertNow used to be.

Superintendent Stan Chapp said AlertNow worked “flawlessly” until Blackboard bought them out and the school district began experiencing difficulties.

“It’s important for us to have a messaging service in our community that works all the time, and we’re going to save some money with this transition,” Chapp said.

School board directors will also vote on the plan for summer school remediation classes for secondary students.

Up to six weeks of remediation classes will be offered at West Shamokin High School in Rural Valley, but acceleration classes (classes taken for the first time by students to achieve additional credits) will not be offered according to Acting Assistant Superintendent Dr. James Gaggini.

Gaggini said last summer was the first time acceleration classes were offered, but administrators look to step back this based on the number of staff compared to the number of students that participated.

Gaggini said some students already know if they have to attend summer school classes, but most participating students are determined at the end of the school term.

“They’re not required to take summer school – they could take the class over again the following year during the regular school year to make sure they have credits. You have certain courses required for graduation, but sometimes you don’t want to be taking two years of English in your senior year,” Gaggini said.

Courses offered include English, math, social studies and science, but those will also be determined by the number of students that register.

SAT Prep courses begin April 14 on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. The tests will be hosted at Kittanning Senior High May 2.

School administrators will be able to move into the new Armstrong Junior-Senior High School in Manor Township in the middle of June – tentatively a week after graduation
“Glow for Gabe” – an all-night dance marathon starts at 9PM tonight at Kittanning Senior High to raise money for Gabe Aguirre of Rayburn Township - who is battling leukemia.

Kittanning Senior High Senior Ashley Worlds is chairing the event and said a dozen teams are raising money during the dance-a-thon (which will be similar to a blacklight party). About $6,000 was also donated by local businesses.

Worlds said the theme is also based on Aguirre’s love of Star Wars.

“We have 12 different teams and they’re all different colors. We tried to stick with neon colors to go with the theme,” Worlds said.

She hopes Aguirre will be able to attend.

As well as an executive session before the meeting to discuss student confidentiality, personnel, real estate, and tax assessment appeal, an executive session was held following the meeting to discuss personnel.

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.