Hollister
– San Benito High School is considering adopting a new auto-dial
system for phoning parents that educators hope will improve
communication with students and their families while generating
additional revenue for the district.
Hollister – San Benito High School is considering adopting a new auto-dial system for phoning parents that educators hope will improve communication with students and their families while generating additional revenue for the district.
“It’s really just a much better system than the one we have now, and there’s a lot of potential there,” Director of Finance and Operation Jim Koenig said.
Currently SBHS uses an automated call system that is several years old to call parents with pre-recorded messages when their child has an unexcused absence or is tardy, or just to send general announcements to families about school events or schedule changes. Being outdated, however, it has a number of problems – sometimes parents don’t receive calls until after school is out, giving students a chance to intercept them, or the system is unable to leave a voicemail message correctly.
“I think it must have called me three or four times during the summer about my daughter for no reason, and it was really annoying,” SBHS parent Monica Rodriguez said. “And sometimes it will try to leave a message, but it finishes before the beep and just leaves silence.”
SBHS is considering investing in a new system, called Ed-Connect, that officials hope will contact parents more efficiently.
“Basically it lets you program six numbers for each student – the home phone, parents’ work phone, the student’s personal cell phone, whatever,” Koenig said. “And it starts to call whichever ones you program in as soon as a student is reported absent.”
Koenig said the new system can also improve student safety, in the case of an emergency like an earthquake or if someone suspects a student is in danger. The principal can record a message in an emergency that will be distributed through the school community.
“It will call every number in the database, every student, parent and teacher, with a pre-recorded message,” Koenig said. “In the example they gave us, somebody called back and found the kid in just a few minutes.”
Officials can also use the program to stay in touch with students.
“One of the things you can do is call a student with a wake-up call the day after they’re reported tardy for class,” Koenig said.
Attendance has been a major focus for SBHS over the past year or so. Over the summer educators developed a 30-point plan to increase attendance, which they believe will have a tangible effect on student report cards and school coffers. The plan included focusing on the families of migrant education and special education students, increasing staff attendance and educating parents about the importance of regular attendance.
Koenig said some schools that have installed the Ed-Connect system have seen as much as a 1 percent increase in attendance which, while it may not sound impressive, can affect the school in a big way. He estimated that a 1 percent increase could generate roughly $200,000 in additional revenue for SBHS and help eliminate the district’s budget deficit.
“A 1 percent increase would be a tremendous financial achievement for the district,” he said. “We would do just about anything to see that.”
The system itself costs $600-$800 a year, and the district is charged $3.60 for each student in the database. With a student population of roughly 2,800, the district could pay more than $10,000 a year to operate the service.
“Even if we just improved one ADA (average daily attendance) which is much less than one percent, that’s $7,000 right there,” Koenig said. “So hopefully it will pay for itself.”
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected].
