By Rhys Baker

U-S-D 3-7-9 Clay County Schools have used SwiftAlert Solutions for over five years as its incident management system for severe weather, emergencies, and attendance.  As of October 1, SwiftAlert decided to discontinue services to school systems. U-S-D 3-7-9 Community Connections Coordinator Matt Weller explains, “That’s why the changes are being made at this time of year. While it’s not necessarily ideal, the nice thing is that some parents said they weren’t receiving certain messages. With this change, every parent who is signed up through PowerSchool will automatically receive messages. Instead of signing up, they will have to opt-out.”

The district has replaced SwiftAlert with School Messenger. This system added all guardian contacts from PowerSchool, the district’s information management program. An initial alert was activated last Thursday to inform parents and guardians that they are registered for School Messenger Notifications. Weller says if you did not receive the message, now is the time to notify the district of the problem, “This means that they are not signed up through PowerSchool as a parent or a guardian. If they think they are signed up through PowerSchool and still don’t think they got the message, they need to contact the school building.”

The system also syncs nightly to the guardian contacts within Powerschool. School messenger will send out all emergent alerts, lunch balances, attendance, and report cards. If you are a parent or guardian and did not receive an alert on Thursday September 26th, contact your students school within the U-S-D 3-7-9 district.