Hollister
– With daily attendance numbers looming in everyone’s mind, San
Benito High School District officials are hoping better
communication with parents will put more students in class.
Hollister – With daily attendance numbers looming in everyone’s mind, San Benito High School District officials are hoping better communication with parents will put more students in class.
The district’s board of trustees will vote tonight on the purchase of a new telephone messaging service. The phone messaging system would provide quick notification to parents on pertinent information regarding their child – emergencies or student absences and tardies – as well as coming school events.
School officials are hoping the new system will improve parent-school communication and lead to an improvement in attendance.
But some community members question whether phone system’s added features are worth the financial investment.
“We could have continued to use the old system, but it had a lot of drawbacks,” said Jim Koenig, director of finance and operations for the district. “(The new system) has a lot of capabilities. It’s faster, it’s easier to use, it stores more phone numbers and it’s easier to update.”
The new system, called Connect-Ed, would cost $11,792 per year. The system now in use at the school costs $1,685 per year.
“We think (the new system) will pay for itself. We think we’ll get $10,000 more of capabilities out of this system,” Koenig said. “The current system is not as capable as an automatic telephone system. If we want something that’s more capable, it’s going to cost us more money.”
Nydia Buelna, who is the parent of a senior at SBHS, said she has never had any problems receiving messages through the school’s current phone messaging service.
“I don’t have a problem with the current system,” Buelna said. “I’d rather they keep the system that they have and save the money.”
Koenig said the school is also hopeful that the new system will improve student attendance, which can increase district funding. Part of this is due to the immediacy of the new system. Parents are notified as soon as a student is marked absent.
Natasha Rabe, the chief business officer for Connect-Ed, said the company’s automated attendance messages go out quickly and early in the day.
“If the calls go out immediately, sometimes they can turn absences into tardies,” Rabe said.
State funding for a school district is based on average daily attendance rates, so improving attendance can increase school finances. During fall semester, the daily attendance rate at SBHS was 93.36 percent, down from 93.57 percent last year.
“If you can make it easier for the parents to get the message, it’s going to improve communication and that will improve attendance,” Koenig said.
Koenig previously told the Free Lance that some schools that had installed Connect-Ed saw a 1 percent increase in attendance. Such an increase could generate an estimated $200,000 in state funding for the district.
Evelyn Muro, SBHS board member, said she has yet to make her decision on the new system.
“It sounds like a really good program,” Muro said. “The question is, how is that going to fit into the budget?”
Muro said she’s not certain the Connect-Ed system could ensure an increase in average daily attendance rates for the school.
“It would be really hard to tell until you have it in place. I think it would be a bonus, but I don’t think we can know that, or base an opinion off a potential increase in average daily attendance,” Muro said.
If the Connect-Ed system is approved, the new system will be implemented next fall. For the first year, a one-time grant of $6,000 is available for the funding of the system through the No Child Left Behind act.
The meeting will be held at the high school in Room 223 at 7pm tonight.
Alice Joy covers education for the Free Lance. She can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 336 or at [email protected].
