Shawnee Mission Schools have a new parent and patron notification service for emergencies.
The change grows out of tardy school-alert lockdown messages in September. There was no harm to anyone as result of the threat.
It took hours for all families to learn an Overland Park School had been locked down for a time.
The District looked for another system and found it with School-Messenger, which claims to serve three thousand big and small school systems around the country including New York City’s.
Company Vice President Nate Brogan said the service delivers via text, social media, email and the old standby, the telephone--“fifty thousand phone calls will happen generally in about five minutes.”
Brogan said the interactive side of the system also allows schools to be notified of student absenteeism.
Lea Ann Neil of Shawnee Mission Schools says the change will cost about $57 thousand .