Cleveland Metropolitan School District Launches New Parent Notification Program

SchoolMessenger Partnership Provides Quick, Reliable Communications To Reach Families Anytime, Anywhere

Cleveland, OH and Santa Cruz, CA (PRWEB) November 26, 2008 -- The Cleveland Metropolitan School District today announced that it has upgraded its district-wide parent notification system to improve home-school communications. The district, which serves more than 100 schools and 50,000 students, has partnered with SchoolMessenger, a leading U.S. parental notification company, to replace its aging system with one that is more affordable, easier to use, and able to make thousands of calls in a matter of minutes, rather than days.

Key goals for the new system are to deliver better, more informative communications if on-campus emergencies or school closings occur, and to improve the quality and frequency of communications with families throughout the school year.

"We want the community to know that we are constantly evaluating our emergency plans and adopting proactive measures to keep families informed should an on-campus incident or school closing occur," said Dr. Eugene T.W. Sanders, the district's chief executive officer. "Our new emergency notification capabilities allow us to send a clear message as quickly as possible. Doing so eliminates any confusion or unnecessary concern, reassures families that the district has the situation under control, and allows us to provide important updates as the situation unfolds or weather conditions change."

The district installed its first automated notification system more than 20 years ago. The one being replaced began operation in the 2001-2002 academic school year. It allowed only one message to be sent at a time, and took two or three days to process a single call to every family in the district. In addition, the aging equipment, which resides at the data center, required technical staff time to implement, and there were growing maintenance costs.

The new SchoolMessenger system delivers two communications options. For ongoing messages about issues or activities underway in the district, or at a particular school, officials simply access the company's Web-based service to send a message anytime, day or night, from anywhere. For more serious conditions requiring immediate notification, such as an on-campus incident or serious weather emergency, massive calling capabilities allow officials to send thousands of messages in a matter of minutes.

In each case, the notification software allows school or district administrators to create personalized and timely voice or text messages, or emails, that can be delivered in any language. Since there is no limit to the number of messages the district can send, officials can use the system as often as necessary to keep parents, students and staff fully informed and updated on any incident.

"We want to applaud the district's success in creating an organized, strategic program that places a clear priority on parent communications and student safety," said Julie Abbott, vice president of Sales for Reliance Communications, the parent company of SchoolMessenger. "By leveraging our notification service, which is designed exclusively for K-12 schools, district and school administrators are well prepared for almost any emergency. In today's connected world, with 24/7 access to news and information, I believe parents expect nothing less from their local schools."

About Reliance Communications, Inc. and SchoolMessenger
Reliance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of automated notification solutions for education, government, health care, business, and non-profit organizations. Thousands of organizations depend on the company's solutions to connect and effectively communicate with millions of people every day. Founded in 1999, the privately-funded company is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California. For information, visit www.relianceco.com and www.schoolmessenger.com.

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