A new change came to the Rose Hill School District shortly after new Superintendent Chuck Lambert stepped into office. New safety measures were put into place in every building, but the biggest changes came at the Primary school.
Lachlan Jones was hired over the summer break as the security greeter at the Primary school. Instead of giving the office staff the chore of ringing people in, Jones’ job is to welcome the guest into the school while also running a background check.
Jones being hired is just one layer to Lambert’s increased security plan.
“The picture with the five buttons is an app that the teachers will have on their phone that they can push in case of an emergency,” Lambert said. “It is the Raptor Emergency Alert. It also has a ‘team assist’ button. When the button is pushed the appropriate personnel will be notified of the situation and receive GPS coordinates. The ‘Visitor Management’ system will do an immediate background check on anyone that visits within a matter of seconds from their drivers license.”
Not only is the physical safety of the schools being improved, but the communication between teachers and parents has a whole new face as well.
Coming in early October, USD 394 is launching a new parent-teacher communication app. “Rooms” combines a digital classroom as well as a way of communicating between parents, students, and teachers.
“The ‘Rooms’ app and ‘Apptegy’ app will make it so we can communicate with families on a regular basis with PDFS, pictures, links, etc,” Lambert said. “It will give us a great opportunity to share “our story” every day.”
Hoping to have a successful launch, District Technology Director Greg Walls has been preparing all teachers and staff for the new implementation.
“All teachers and administrators are currently receiving training on Rooms,” Walls said. “We plan on launching the new platform to parents, students, and the community on Oct. 2. This is part of a larger plan to launch a new mobile app and website. The design work for the website will begin in January. The new mobile app can be downloaded now.”
