Mass-alert
technology gets an A+ in schools
Thursday, January 27, 2005 • BY BEV
McCARRON • Star-Ledger Staff
Lisa Palazzetti and her family were having dinner at a
neighbor's home in Harding Township on Sunday when they were
startled by the sound of their cell phones and the house
telephones ringing all at once.
It was a message from their school district alerting
both families that the season's first big snow was going to
mean a delayed opening the next day.
"We heard a recording that said there was an urgent
message from Harding Township school, and please get pen and
paper and write down the details," said Palazzetti, who has
two children in district schools. "We did know the night
before, which was great. We were happy to be able to sleep
in a bit."
A new mass-notification system being used in Harding and
Spring Lake Heights now allows schools to
simultaneouslyreach out to thousands of parents through
multiple channels -- at home, the office, by cell, page or
e-mail -- or in the case of the recent snow delay, all of
the above.
Although the technology was developed after the 9/11
terror attacks to instantly communicate with parents in dire
emergencies, it has found wide use in alerting parents to
changes in school schedules and as a reminder of routine
events like picture day or PTA meetings.
Harding and Spring Lake Heights are using Honeywell
Inc.'s instant alert system, which got its first big test
last weekend.
Instead of phone trees that were used in Spring Lake
Heights and relied on parents to keep the chain going, or
the auto-dialer used in Harding that could take hours to
reach every family, both school districts sent out emergency
messages that reached parents and staffin no time.
"We did the alert at 5:30 Sunday, and by 5:33, 700
people were notified," Spring Lake Heights Superintendent
Linda Martensen said of the evening alert.
She said she also received a report detailing the time
everyone was called that also let her know eight staff
members failed to receive the message. Those staff members
were reached later, she said.
According to eSchool News, a national publication on
technology in schools, the automated mass-alert systems are
one of the fastest-growing safety and communication tools in
schools today.
Honeywell has its system in 200 schools across the
nation and is negotiating with more districts in New Jersey.
Other providers include the National Notification Network
(3n), serving schools in Los Angeles and San Diego, and
Saf-T-Net, a North Carolina-based company, which is in 130
schools in Wake County, N.C.
Kenneth Trump, president of the National School Safety
and Security Services in Cleveland, said the mass-alert
business is growing rapidly because it gets the word out
fast and efficiently.
"In an emergency situation, it's a critical thing," he
said. "Parents want to know what's going on and they want to
know right away."
Companies charge between $5 and $15 per student for a
year. The Harding TownshipEducation Foundation picked up the
tab for the system, about $3,200. The K-8 district has 340
pupils.
"All of us in the school became acutely aware of the
need to communicate with people post-9/11," said
Superintendent Dennis Pallozzi. "I'm not saying it was the
genesis, but it was something we considered when Honeywell
and one other group approached us."
What Pallozzi especially likes is to be able to alert
parents in multiple ways. Parents input their contact
information online, specifying how they want to be reached.
They can change or update information as needed, and note
which contacts to use in an emergency and which to use for a
routine announcement.
Patrick Stuver, co-founder of the California's National
Notification Network, stressed the importance of the
system's flexibility.
"If it's an emergency, there are nine ways to get ahold
of me. If it's not, just send an e-mail. Which is important
to me -- I don't want my phone ringing all day just to tell
me about the bake sale," he said.
The system can be used to break down parents into
subgroups. In Spring Lake Heights recently, the basketball
team's parents were notified when the game was canceled and
practice scheduled instead.
When the notification system cranked into action last
weekend in the 400-student district, Martensen said she got
mostly positive feedback from parents who liked the quick
notice of the district's delayed opening. One complained
that he was notified three times -- by cell, land phone and
e-mail.
"But if you put it in perspective, I think you'd rather
be called three times than not at all," she said.
Bev McCarron covers education. She can be reached at
(908) 429-3018 or bmccarron@starledger.com.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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