Alert Now Is A New Automated Phone System That Will Call Parents On School Hour Changes

The Watauga County Schools have activated a new “Alert Now” automated phone system to notify parents of changes in school hours due to inclement weather. The system can also be used to announce other emergency information concerning the schools, should that be necessary. The new system can make 4,000 calls per minute, allowing all school parents with phones to be contacted within minutes.
At this time, the Alert Now system can call one home phone number and up to two parent work numbers for each student. In the early morning hours before school opens, only home phone numbers will be called with announcements about school closings and delays. Home and work numbers will both be called when schools close during the day due to weather or if there is a school emergency not related to weather conditions.
The calls parents receive will give a recorded message announcing school closings and delays. When school closings and delays are announced in the early morning hours, the call will normally be made at or soon after 6:15 a.m., depending on the time the decision is made.
To help ensure the system was operating as planned, there was a “trial run” on Monday, December 18. The recorded message did not name the person being called, so employers may not have known at first who needed the message at their place of business. School parents may need to talk with their employer to request a way for the announcement to be relayed to them from whoever answers the phones at their work site.
The system is set up to complete a call to each number only once so employers will not receive separate calls for each employee with school children, and parents with more than one child in school will not receive separate calls for each child.
Parents who do not wish to receive the calls can request an “Opt-Out” form from their school office. Parents who want a call and did not receive one during the test may check with their school office to be sure that the correct phone numbers are on file for the system.
The automated phone system will not replace the existing means of announcing school closings, delays, and early dismissals. Those decisions will continue to be announced through local media, on the school system website (www.watauga12.nc.us) on the “snow line” at 264-0200, and (by parent request) e-mail announcements.
The system will eventually have the capacity to call up to 5 phone numbers per student. That capacity is expected to be available by the fall of 2007.