Alabama School System UC To Streamline District Communications

  • By Sharleen Nelson
  • 07/17/13

In an effort to manage, simplify, and improve internal communications for teachers, parents, and students, Huntsville, Alabama's Madison County School System (MCSS) will implement an advanced communications networking technology platform.

For the district-wide telecommunications upgrade initiative, which covers 27 campus districts, MCSS selected Adtran's NetVanta unified communications (UC) platform. The NetVanta UC infrastructure, designed to accommodate growth and expansion of communications systems, will be deployed by MCSS in two phases.

During the first phase, MCSS administrative personnel and teachers will have access to full unified messaging, and superintendents and administrators will be able to create personal drag-and-drop assistants and use Find-me/Follow-me, two technologies that in conjunction allow incoming phone calls to be received at different locations on different phones. In addition, the district's outdated analog fax machines will be replaced with a fax server and a conference server will be installed to host system-wide school official calls. Finally, overhead and handset paging will be integrated into the existing systems at each campus.

The second phase will involve implementation of a simplified data collection and distribution system with real-time parent communications that include a number of features, including emergency alerts, absentee notifications, policy reminders, and bell schedule timers.

"When considering network solutions, Adtran was the obvious choice because the company offered a breadth of advanced capabilities and provided impeccable support throughout the deployment process," said Tommy Whitten, district technology coordinator for Madison County School System, in a prepared statement. "Adtran has enabled MCSS to not only lower costs while advancing technology and communications, but has provided the infrastructure our community will rely on as we grow our campuses and curriculum."

Madison County School District is located in Huntsville, AL and includes 28 schools that serve approximately 20,000 students in grades preK-12. The district has an annual budget of approximately $220 million.

For more information about Adtran, visit adtran.com.

About the Author

Sharleen Nelson is a freelance journalist based in Springfield, Oregon. She can be reached at [email protected].

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