Area Schools to Pilot New Emergency System for Notifying Media and Parents of Severe Weather Schedule Changes and Emergencies

WACO, TEXAS-- A number of Central Texas schools will pilot an emergency notification system this winter for relaying school weather closures/delays and other emergency messages to the news media and directly to parents.

Districts such as China Spring, Midway, McGregor, Moody, Killeen and Gatesville ISD will use FlashNews, an Internet-based system that consolidates school information and provides it to the media in formats they can use in newsrooms and on media websites. The Education Service Center (ESC) Region 12 unveiled the service at a superintendent meeting earlier this fall.

“By bringing this information together in one place, superintendents can see the decisions other districts have already made in real time and post their own, knowing that it will be in newsrooms within minutes and pushed directly into the media’s websites and in some cases, TV screen crawls,” says Communications Officer Jennifer Marshall-Higgins, who is coordinating the program for ESC Region 12. “Best of all—it saves the school and news media much time and effort during an otherwise hectic time to get crucial information out to the public.”

In the past, school districts relied on early morning phone calls, faxes, emails and sometimes all three to reach radio and TV stations and calling trees to reach staff and parents about schedule changes.  Eleven districts in Central Texas have signed up to pilot the service while many others including Hillsboro, Mt. Calm, Mart, Fairfield and Waco ISD are strongly considering the system.

This clearinghouse approach was developed in Portland, OR and is used by nearly 800 schools, police and fire agencies, cities and businesses in the Northwest, Colorado and now Texas. FlashNews is also rolling out in Austin, Dallas and Houston.

FlashAlert, a companion text message system is available to schools as well. This system enables parents to self register for email and/or cell phone text messages to receive closures, general news and even sports scores, at the same time as the media, free of charge. In addition, districts can link to their own page in this system and avoid having to update their own website in the early hours. Gatesville ISD has recently implemented both FlashNews and FlashAlert.

For more information, call Jennifer Marshall-Higgins at 254.297.1198, 709.5256 or email jhiggins@esc12.net.

About ESC Region 12

            One of 20 centers throughout Texas, the Education Service Center (ESC) Region 12 provides professional training and technical assistance for the purpose of improving student performance for all students.  Based in Waco, with offices in, Corsicana, Goldthwaite, Hillsboro, Nolanville and Teague, the ESC Region 12’s service area includes Bell, Bosque, Coryell, Falls, Freestone, Hamilton, Hill, Lampasas, Limestone, Mills, McLennan and Navarro counties.

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