Is this a new way for schools to save money?

[Pigeon]

The district my kids go to has a system and uses it responsibly. We get messages if there's an early dismissal, a snow day or some other safety issue.

The district my husband works for has a superintendent with an overinflated ego who likes nothing more than to hear himself talk. He sends out broadcast messages about every little thing. I'd say there's a message on the phone from him three days out of five.

 

[golfgal]

Me too. I will have 4 in school next year, I dread it. PTO is trying to implement family packets but it's not catching on yet.
I saved all the papers from the kids last year and sorted it by kid and then a pile for flyers. 8 reams of paper per kid, I was shocked. And a lot of it was colored paper which is expensive!

I wish we had the phone call thing when we lost power at school. Only the gym had power so we kept them all there until the buses came back but we had to call every parent to find out where to send the kids. Thankfully the kids had their cell phones too so we just staged the kids to call the parents, then the adults went down the line to confirm travel arrangements for them.

Our high school almost everything is done online. Teachers post worksheets, etc. there, the kids have a folder on the school server to save assignments to so a lot of it is done over the internet. The school has a couple hundred computers for kids that don't have one at home to use and an activity bus for those that need to stay after so everyone has access as needed. Daily math assignments and such are just done the old fashioned way in notebooks though. It sure does cut down on the paper mess.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Okay is this just new to me or is this happening in your area? I came home one day and was listening to the messages on my home phone and there was a message from the school district. Since then I have been getting calls with prerecorded messages about meetings, or events going on. Now mind you I do not have children in school anymore. Is this there way of saving money? No typed letters anymore.

So I am assuming that if you live in the district regaurdless if you have children or not you are going to get this call. Would love to here if anyone knows about this. Thanks Jo

I wouldn't assume that, I'd assume that the phone number calls the numbers of the parents enrolled in the school, and that someone gave the wrong number, or someone typed the wrong number into the computer.

I got a new phone number once and every day I'd come home to 3 or 4 messages telling me that my child (insert girl's name here) had skipped X period, or Y period. I called the school a couple of times, but it was a huge school and since I didn't know the child's last name and there were many kids with her first name (something really common at that point in time) they said they couln't fix it. I also got phone calls about once a month that my "son" had been suspended for fighting, from the principal at an elementary school my son did not attend.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

My mom is a teacher, and she gets automated schools all the time. I mean, *all* the time. When I'm on the phone with her, I always hear "hang on, it's the school calling, gotta listen to the recording." Two minutes later they're calling on her cell phone. "It's the darn school again, hang on." Haha.