Schools

New E-System Provides Information—But Parents Say It's Not Green

A new system still requires parents to print out documents, according to one resident.

The district has created several new communication systems designed to provide information to parents without sending home actual notices—but some parents are not entirely sure it’s effective.

According to Tom Atkinson, director of technology for the , the district uses several communication and technology systems to provide current information to parents and the community as a whole.

“Our systems are designed to be relatively easy for the principals, administrators and schools to manage,” he said. “What we have today is actually the result of several years of development and integration.”

Find out what's happening in Bridgewaterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The website was changed for the 2007-2008 school year, Atkinson said, which allowed principals and administrators to post updates and news to the whole community. From there, he said, they began “e-blasting,” which allows a user to send e-mails to large groups of people in a moment.

“The schools have used that to communicate with parents, send them documents and forms and keep parents apprised of school events,” he said.

Find out what's happening in Bridgewaterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In that same year, Atkinson said, the district began to use an emergency alert system to notify parents of school closings and other circumstances.

But for this year, Atkinson said, the district took the system one step forward with the “Parent Portal” of the student information system, allowing parents to view schedules, as well as grading information.

“It is entered by teachers for homework, quizzes and tests,” he said. “The Parent Portal also includes nightly updates from other systems, which manages student bus routes and stops, and the food service program.”

Atkinson said the system is updated with any changes made to assigned bus routes.

“Parents also view the current account balance for the students’ cafeteria or food service,” he said. “Parents can view, in the Parent Portal, the student’s outstanding balance, and find a number to call for clarification or more information.”

In addition, Atkinson said, teachers have, for the past two years, been able to maintain a website to purchase information on their courses and subjects.

“This year, for the first time, teachers are required to keep the websites and the Parent Portal current with what is going on in their classrooms,” he said.

But some residents are concerned that all the e-systems are not as “green” as they would have liked.

“They’ve confused the term ‘going green’ with ‘pass the buck,’” said parent Lauralee Davis. “Going green is a misnomer.”

Davis said that although she agrees with putting information online, she believes the district has actually shifted the onus of printing out forms from the teachers to the parents.

“Many of the forms we now print, sign and send in are redundant,” she said. “If the school system wants to really go green, then they need a program where we can send this information back to them online.”

For example, Davis said, parents are still required to send in hardcopy pages of absence excuses or early pickup notifications. And class supply lists, she said, were posted late or not at all.

“And you needed to copy and paste the list from the teachers’ pages to Word because it wouldn’t print out the list from their page,” she said. “Last minute, there were some items put on a general list for the kids, but I’ve been to Staples three times because they couldn’t get their lists generated on time or in full before school started.”

But Atkinson said many of the documents that need to be printed are ones required by state procedure or board policy.

"We have special e-mail addresses that parents use to notify schools of updates or changes to the demographic and contact information in the Parent Portal," he said. "Parents do have to print, sign and return a few documents, such as emergency contact forms and computer acceptable use policies. The forms have to be retained in the offices."

"We are, however, trying to find reliable, secure and affordable ways to obviate the needs for families to print and physically sign certain forms and documents in order to save parents those tasks and costs," he added. "But to date, the only two-way communication systems, where schools and parents communicate via online updates and corrections, are too involved or exorbitant for us."

Still, as of early September, Atkinson said, the Parent Portal has seen about 90.2 percent participation with the parents of the about 9,000 students in the school district.

“Those parents or guardians have logged on at least once to their child’s account in the Parent Portal,” he said.

And since Aug. 15, Atkinson said, the website has sent out 90 e-blasts and 81,555 e-mails to parents.

“While these communications improve the speed and accuracy of school-family communication, they have also helped to reduce the costs of printing and mailing thousands of letters,” he said.

“[Superintendent of Schools Michael] Schilder has called for continuous monitoring of the systems and feedback on how to improve and facilitate even more communication,” Atkinson added. “It has been discussed and reviewed at every administrative meeting of the year.”

But Davis said she thinks it would be most important for the district to cut down even more on the paper generated. At this time, she said, anything requiring an answer from a parent needs a printed-out copy returned to the school.

“The only different is it has to be printed out by the parents,” she said. “It’s still hard copy.”

And Davis said she is still finding that information is not being sent out in a timely fashion.

“I received a reminder of my daughter’s need to complete a seventh grade math packet,” she said. “Unfortunately, no one had ever bothered to send a packet home with her from , or send an e-mail informing the parents of a math packet.”

“There have also been missed and last minute sendings for other events in both and Eisenhower,” she added.

Atkinson said he has not heard of any direct problems, and that the alert system is managed by parents, who are required to sign in and update their own accounts whenever contact information changes.

"I have noted in the past that there is a marked uptick in the number of updates to these accounts on the night right before the first snowstorm that is expected to close schools," he said.

Atkinson said he has been made aware of parents receiving notice of a school's message under the name of another child attending a different school. But, he said, they are working on correcting the information.

"And parents are receiving the e-mails from their children's schools, just not always under the name of the child," he said. "Because the information is not confidential, or child specific, parents are being informed about school events."

For Davis, she believes the district should develop a program that allows parents to access their children’s information online or update it to save the need for printing out documents to be sent back.

“Ten pieces of paper each child does not generate would be going green,” she said.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here