AlertNow to replace eSchoolnewsletter
June 22, 2009
Eric Villard

Parents of Carroll County students will soon have a new way of communicating with school administrators.

AlertNow is set to replace eSchoolnewsletter as a method of communication between schools and parents. The previous service will be terminated on June 30, and the new service is to be approved on July 8 and become operational on Aug. 1, according to Assistant Superintendent Stephen Guthrie.

AlertNow

Guthrie said the new system would have two features to it - one being an electronic newsletter similar to eSchoolnewsletter, and the other being a phone call system in the case of emergencies, as opposed to the previous system's texting service. When comparing the two, Guthrie said the new method of correspondence would offer more enhanced information.

eSchoolnewsletter

eSchool Systems, LLC, founded in 2002, was the creator of eSchoolnewsletter. In a release to Carroll County the president of the company, Jean Parker, said the reason for the newsletter's termination was a lack of adequate business support, which doomed the company's sponsor-based model.

Parker said switching over to a fee service would not work. "Converting to a fee-based model is also not feasible since 100 percent participation of all counties would be required and due primarily to the economy, this is impossible."

The school response

Dwayne Piper, principal of Liberty High School, said the eSchoolnewsletter would be missed. "A lot of parents truly rely on the school newsletter," he mentioned.

Piper said the school relied heavily on the service as well, using it for daily communication with parents and even sending the morning PA announcements to them so they could stay in the loop. "That way parents don't feel like they're left in the dark." On top of that, the system saved money by making it so the school did not need to pay postage. He said the service had about 1490 subscribers at Liberty alone.

Links:
Compare the services yourself -

eSchoolnewsletter Web site:
http://www.eschoolnewsletter.com/

AlertNow Web site:
http://www.alertnow.com/01_01.html

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