Automated Phone Calling System
August 20, 2008
Seaman Telephone Broadcast Service
To enhance communications between parents and school, Seaman School District instituted a telephone broadcast system that enables school personnel to notify all households and parents by phone within minutes of an emergency or unplanned event that causes early dismissal, school cancellation or late start. The service also may be used from time-to-time to communicate general announcements or reminders. This service is provided by SchoolReach, which specializes in school-to-parent communications. Seaman School District will continue to report school closings due to snow or weather on local radio and television stations and will use this system as an overlay to the public announcements.
When used, the service will simultaneously call all listed phone numbers in our parent contact list (numbers you gave us during parent-teacher conferences) and will deliver a recorded message. The service will deliver the message to both live answer and answering machines. No answers and busies will be automatically retried twice in 15 minute intervals after the initial call.
NOTE: 1) This requires NO registration by the parent on the SchoolReach website. 2). All information and contact numbers are strictly secure and confidential and are only used for the purposes described herein.
Here is some specific information you should know.
Caller ID: The Caller ID will display Seaman Unified 575-8600, which is the district office, so do not return a call to this number. Please do not the school unless directed to do so in the message.
Live Answers: There is a short pause at the beginning of the message, usually just a few seconds. Answer your phone as you normally would “Hello” and hold for the message to begin. Multiple “Hello’s” will delay message. Inform all family members of this process who may answer your phone.
Answering Machines: The system will detect that your machine has answered and will play the recording to your machine. The maximum numbers of rings before hang up is 5. Make sure your machine answers after 4 rings or you may miss the message.
Morning/Day Calls: In the event a cancellation decision is made the night before, or in the early morning hours, the broadcast message will be sent to the student’s home phone number.
Message Repeat: At the end of the message you will be prompted to ‘press one’ to hear the message again. This is very effective when a child answers the phone and hands it to a parent, who can then ‘Repeat’ the message in its entirety.
