Schools Roll Out Emergency Alert Systems

• By David Nagel
• 06/02/09

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K-12 schools are continuing to adopt emergency alert systems in droves. Several have recently gone public with their adoption of a notification system from Omnilert to communicate both routine and emergency information to stakeholders.

According to Omnilert, The Bryn Mawr School, Cheshire Academy, the Child Development Academy at Marshall University, Malvern Preparatory School, Seattle Country Day School, Smethport Area School District, St. Paul's School, and others have all signed on to use the company's e2Campus notification system.

The e2Campus system gives campus administrators a centralized interface for sending urgent messages to campus Web sites, digital signs, mobile phones, e-mail accounts, and RSS readers used by students, faculty, staff, and visitors. It also supports Alertus Notification Beacons, which are wireless units that notify people of campus emergencies via sirens and visual signals.

"For school emergencies, e2Campus text and voice messages eliminate the need for a phone tree," said George Romanowski, superintendent of Smethport Area School District in Smethport, in a statement released this week. "The most invaluable piece is notifying parents during the school day of emergencies and early dismissals. We can quickly get the message to them at work so they can make arrangements for sons and daughters arriving home a couple hours early. The parent's feedback has been very very positive."

"In order to best provide a safe and supportive environment for our students and their families, we needed to keep up with modern technology," said Charlie Mitchell, director of community life at Cheshire Academy in Cheshire, CT. "We know that the types of technology people use will only get bigger and e2Campus will be there for us as technology changes."

According to Omnilert, e2Campus is now used in more than 600 schools in the United States.