Bronco Alerts
November 22, 2010
Centennial Public School has a new mass notification system. This tool will be used to notify parents, faculty, staff, and other key members of the school community in the event of an emergency or other district-wide event. This system works with our student information system, PowerSchool and doesn't require any sign up by parents. Contact phone numbers and/or email addresses are taken from PowerSchool data. Thus it is important the office has the most current contact information for your child.
Voice phone calls are the primary method of communication with this system. Problems with e-mails and text messages will not be priorities to resolve.
General Questions and Answers
Q1. What phone numbers will the system call?
A. The AlertNow system uses contact information that the district has on file for parents in PowerSchool. This information consists of "primary household" information (usually a home phone and e-mail address), and additional phone numbers.
In non-emergency situations, or when school is cancelled or delayed in the morning due to weather, the system will call the primary household phone number (home phone) and send a message to the primary e-mail address.
In emergencies, or when school will be dismissed during the day (early) due to weather, the system will call all phone numbers (home and cell phones) and e-mail all e-mail addresses on record for the family in PowerSchool.
Other than ensuring that your contact information is up to date (usually done at registration time), no other "sign-up" or "activation" is necessary in order to receive messages at these points of contact.
Q2. How many phone numbers and e-mail addresses can I have on file?
A. Currently, a primary home phone number and cell phone numbers for both parents are entered into the system. It also stores one e-mail address per student. At this time, parent workplace phone numbers are not included in the system due to the fact that many workplace numbers are for switchboards.
Q3. Can AlertNow send Text Messages?
A. AlertNow does have the ability to send text messages. Families must Opt-In for the service, however. While there are no additional charges for the service, your cellular phone and/or paging company’s message rates will apply. Families wishing to Opt-In may do so by visiting http://www.alertnowsms.com. You will be prompted to enter a PIN number. Centennial’s PIN number is DIST67R. After entering the PIN number, click “Opt-In” and complete the form. You will still receive voice calls from the service even after you enroll for text messages--this is mandatory.
Q4. When will you notify by phone versus email or text?
A. Probably the quickest way to contact people is using phone contacts. At times, only an email message may be sent as a reminder for specific school related topics. There may also be times when both phone calls, texts, and email messages are sent to help ensure that parents are reached. These would be for emergency type situations and if school is to be dismissed early.
Q5. What if I am not contacted?
A. If you do NOT get contacted and feel you should have received a message you should first check for any sent messages to your phone number. This can be done by going to www.alertnowmessage.com and entering in your phone number that is supposed to receive calls. If any messages were sent to that number, they would appear there. You should only contact the school office if you feel you have missed a call and nothing is showing on the message website. The school has the capability to see what messages have been received, left on voicemail/machine, busy, etc. More often than not, the message was sent but someone else answered the phone and did not pass on the message.
Q6. What if I move or change phone numbers or my email address changes?
A. Contact the building secretary of your student(s) as mentioned above as soon as you have the new information.
Q7. AlertNow hung up before I heard the message. What should I do?
A. AlertNow utilizes the industry’s most Advanced Answering Machine Detection (AAMD) software. The system starts the broadcast immediately upon telephone pickup; simultaneously, it is listening for interruptions. If the system is not interrupted by noise
or someone speaking within the first 3.5 seconds, the message is delivered. If the system detects a greeting longer than a few seconds, the system treats this as an outgoing message from an answering machine and will stop playing, wait for silence
(usually after the beep), and then start the message over so that it can be recorded in its entirety.
While the software is 98% accurate in distinguishing live vs. machine, errors can occur if the person repeatedly says “hello” or answers in a noisy environment (i.e. traffic, children playing, loud music or television, dog barking, etc.). Generally in these situations, the system stops playing the message. It is waiting for silence to start the message over. In a noisy environment, where silence is unattainable, call recipients can press the number 1 on their telephone and the message will play from the beginning without interruption. You can also go to www.alertnowmessage.com and enter in your phone number and retrieve any messages online.
Q8. What if the line is busy or there is no answer?
A. The AlertNow system will make up to four attempts to reach each number, with three minutes in between each call. If the message is not delivered by the fourth attempt, the school is notified of such in the delivery report.
Q9. Why is my answering machine recording only half of the message?
A. If the answering machine greeting is sporadic with various periods of silence or does not start playing within 3 seconds, the system may read this as a live person and begin playing the message before the machine has started recording. This will result in a recording of silence (if the AlertNow message finishes playing before the machine begins recording) or of just the last portion of the AlertNow message. Parents can simply re-record their outgoing message so that there are no pauses.
Alternately, if the answering machine is set to record for a specific amount of time (e.g., 30 seconds) and the AlertNow message runs longer than that, this will also result in message cut-off. The recommended solution is to have parents set their machines to
record for a longer period. For answering machines or voicemail systems where it is necessary to enter a mailbox number, AlertNow is unable to leave a message.
Q10. My caller ID showed that the school had called, but there was no voicemail. Why?
A. The system is will ring a line up to six times. If your answering machine is set to pick upon seven or more rings, the message may not be delivered to your machine. Therefore, we encourage you to set your machine to six rings or fewer. Another possibility is that
there is a break or a substantial silence in your machine’s outgoing message, causing the AlertNow message to play prior to the machine actually recording. Please make sure that the greeting is seamless to facilitate successful message delivery.
Q11. Why doesn’t the school’s name and/or phone number appear on the caller ID?
A. AlertNow passes the caller ID information to the local telephone carriers, but it is up to those carriers to pass it along to their customers. Furthermore, different local telephone companies process caller ID information differently. Some provide the name associated with the number, while others do not. For example, a telephone company may require an individual to subscribe to “Advanced Caller ID” in order to receive the school name
along with the phone number. Unfortunately, we have no control over this feature.
Q12. I have a telemarketer screening device or service. How will that affect the call?
A. Devices such as TeleZapper and services from the phone company such as Privacy Manager or Privacy Director are specifically designed to prevent “unknown” calls from progressing to the customer’s phone. Unless the district has chosen otherwise, emergency calls launched through AlertNow display 411-000-0000 on the caller ID, which is a non-standard, “unknown” number, triggering most privacy manager services.
AlertNow’s software is designed to distinguish between a live answer and an answering machine, not to navigate though privacy management services. Parents can contact their phone company and request that 411-000-000 be added to their list of allowed
callers.
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