Modesto schools get word out faster

When an emergency happened at a Modesto City school, it could take up to eight hours to get word to parents through an automated phone call system.

Now, officials can spread the word in a matter of minutes.

The old system only allowed principals or administrators to use dozens of phone lines at a time. Now, they have access to thousands of lines in the event of an emergency, such as a lockdown or fire, said Stan Trevena, director of technology at Modesto City Schools.

"It's a great opportunity to contact (parents) as fast as possible," he said.

Officials also use the parent notification system to remind families about back-to-school nights, fund-raisers and other school events.

Turlock and Ceres school districts have similar systems, where thousands of lines are used to disperse information in a matter of minutes. Turlock Unified officials find that TeleParent is "easy. Schools are really utilizing the program and we're getting great response," said Janet Pohl-DeMello, a district spokeswoman.

With 28,000 students and up to three contact numbers for each student, Modesto City Schools might need to send messages to as many as 84,000 phone numbers at once.

The district wants to add e-mail alerts, but not many parents write in their e-mail addresses when filling out emergency contact forms at the beginning of the school year, Trevena said. He encourages parents to do that to increase their chances of receiving information as quickly as possible.

Modesto City Schools officials send phone messages almost every night, Trevena said.

Cost for the district dropped from $120,000 a year to $18,000 for a flat, annual fee with SchoolMessenger, Tre-vena said. The flat fee "takes away our hesitation to do an all-call." Under the prior contract, officials were getting charged thousands of dollars each time they made a call, he said.

But officials do keep in mind that barraging parents with too many calls could defeat the purpose of the messages.

Bee staff writer Michelle Hatfield can be reached at mhatfield@modbee.com or 578-2339.