Columbus City Schools Switches to Global Connect for Notification

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/11/09

Columbus City Schools in Ohio will be implementing a new parent notification system from Global Connect, which won the work through a competitive bidding process. The new contract lasts for one year with three one-year renewal options and is valued at about $315,000 for the four-year period, according to local news reports. The district operates 130 schools with 53,000 students and 8,500 employees.

The district will use the company's Parent Notification System, which is Web-based, for both routine announcements and emergency messages. The program allows schools to send out audio and text messages to landline phones, cell phones, and e-mail addresses. Additional features include polling, real-time reporting, call scheduling, pre-recorded messages to address specific situations, and the ability to create custom call lists.

Student contact information will be pulled from the district's electronic student information system.

"This system will help enhance the many ways in which we communicate with our parents, students and the community as a whole," said Superintendent and CEO Gene Harris. "With some of the new features of this system, we will be able to broaden our outreach to the community, delivering important information in a timely and efficient manner."

The district's previous notification system was SchoolConnects from Synrevoice Technologies. That contract totaled about $407,000 for three years of service. According to the proposal for the new system, the SchoolConnects software had "capacity issues that will not be tolerated in this contract."