News

Texarkana ISD’s first use of CodeRED system a success
Sunday, February 26, 2006 2:10 PM CST

By Dionne Victor

Texarkana Gazette

The sound of James Henry Russell’s voice was most likely a sweet melody for Texarkana Independent School District students who watched television screens recently for information on school closures.

Russell, the assistant superintendent for learning services for TISD, had the task of informing students last week of icy road conditions that forced school to be delayed and then canceled.

Through the district’s use of the CodeRED Emergency Notification System, Russell’s message was disseminated to the 9,151 homes of TISD teachers and students within 14 minutes just by picking up the phone, said John Humphrey, TISD director of information technology.

The high-speed telephone communication service system, which launches calls from out-of-district ports, uses three databases throughout the district: teacher home numbers, student home numbers and a system combining the two sets of phone numbers.

Feb. 20 was the first time the district used the system, which was designed efor government use but also is a key part of the National Missing Children’s Network. The district bought the system in January.

“We have had an overwhelming positive response from the public about the system,” Humphrey said.

He said other systems the district looked at required district phone line use.

With only 46 phone lines, Humphrey said it would have taken longer to try to make all the phone calls locally.

Using CodeRED, the district could activate the system from anywhere, as long as there is Internet capability.

Chief John Warren, head of TISD’s police department, discovered the system while attending a meeting of the Ark-Tex Council of Governments.

Chief John Warren, head of TISD’s police department, discovered the system while attending a meeting of the Ark-Tex Council of Governments.

“They put on a demonstration and brought in CodeRED representatives, and later I also read up on it,” Warren said.

TISD is the only school district in Texas to use CodeRED, although some other districts use a similar program.

Last week’s inaugural launch included two sets of phone calls.

Humphrey said the first was done around 7 a.m. to notify parents and teachers that school would be delayed until 10 a.m. The second was a message that school was canceled.

He said the connection rate—the actual percentage of student and faculty homes where phones were answered—was 76.4 percent.

CodeRED’s national connection rate average is 60 to 75 percent.

Its first time in use, the system was a saving grace, especially because it kept students out of harm’s way, said Humphrey.

“If the system prevented a single fatality by keeping our students off the icy roads, we consider it money well-spent,” he said.

The system cost TISD $10,000 for the initial year of the contract. In subsequent years it will cost $5,000 per year.

Humphrey said it will provide TISD with $50,000 worth of phone calls with an average of 20 cents per call. Each call takes about 30 seconds. Last week’s message was about 25 seconds long.

The system will also be used to notify the community about school-sponsored events. The system can do more than inform everyone in the district—it also can pinpoint smaller geographic groups.

“They have patented technology that allows us to reach a geographic area and allows you to launch calls in that area with a recorded message,” said Humphrey.

Even though TISD has a notification system, the district plans to continue using the tried and true system of notifying local television and radio stations of school closings.

In the future, an important element to notifying teachers, students and their parents will be the addition of secondary numbers such as cell phones and work phone numbers.

“It is imperative that we have accurate contact information for each student,” said Warren.

The plan is to update the system about every six weeks.

Humphrey said they are now working with developers to modify the caller-ID information.

“Now, any calls we launch will carry TISD’s caller-ID number,” he said.