SchoolMessenger Provides Safe, Secure Messages to Students’ Families

— by Eric Webb, Orcas Island School District (OISD) —

If you are an Orcas Island School District parent, you may recall hearing a lot from me (Superintendent Webb) back in February and March thanks to Orcas Island Education Foundation’s funding of the implementation of the SchoolMessenger grant!

School Messenger was officially launched during the snowy days Orcas Island experienced in February and early March when I sent out voice, text, and email messages to all OISD parents and staff when school was delayed or closed due to inclement weather or dangerous driving conditions. This first launch of SchoolMessenger was a great success and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect, given the weather we were experiencing at the time.

Reliable and accessible communication between the district and its students, families, and staff is essential to school safety and family engagement. The SchoolMessenger program is updated several times a day from OISD’s current information system, and has the capacity to automatically produce emails relating to information such as lunch count and attendance. Office managers and principals can select their target audiences to receive communication as needed, followed by a post-communication report that is generated so the school can view just how many messages were successfully received, how many were not received, and why.

So, the next time you receive a message from the school, fear not! You’re not being summoned to the principal’s office…..…you’re just receiving an important school message via SchoolMessenger! THANK YOU, Orcas Island Education Foundation (OIEF) for funding the execution of such a valuable tool for our staff, students, and their families!

If you would like to support OIEF’s mission of making education better for all OISD students, you may make a donation at oief.org, shop AmazonSmile, or attend OIEF’s dinner and auction, Food for Thought on June 3. Tickets for Food for Thought may be purchased at oief.org and at the Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce.