SWITZ CITY -- The White River Valley Board of School Trustees gave Superintendent Layton Wall approval to set up an instant parent contact service that will allow the school to send quick messages in cases of school closings, dismissals, evacuations or lockdowns.

At their regular monthly meeting held Tuesday evening at the WRV Junior-Senior High School, the board approved the expenditure of a one-time fee of $525 to set up the emergency contact service provided by School Reach.

Parents will be charged a $2 yearly fee to fund the service plan.

The service will allow the school to make unlimited calls to parents in the event they need to be contacted quickly. Wall as well as administrators at other buildings will have access to activate the calls through a computer with Internet access.

The administrator will record a message which will then be sent to all numbers on the contact list. The calls may be sent not only to parents but also to all teachers, staff members and bus drivers.

"I'd like to try it one year. I like the idea of pushing a button and knowing concerned parents are going to immediately get the information they need. This will be much better than a phone tree," said Wall.

When a call goes out to parents at whatever emergency contact number they have given the school, the system will keep calling them back until the phone is answered. The system can send the call to a home number, a cell phone number or any other contact number.

Wall said this system could be used to announce a school delay, cancellation or early dismissal due to inclement weather.

The system may also be used to send information in the case of man-made disasters like a bomb threat.

Wall gave an example that if students at one of the elementary schools had to be evacuated immediately and were moved to the high school gymnasium, all parents involved would get a call giving them information about the situation and instructions about where and when they could pick up their children.

Wall said the system could also be used at times when there might be mis-information in the community and the administration needed to let parents know everything was under control and all students were safe.

Rather than wait to start the service at the beginning of the next academic year, the board voted to fund the sign-up now to take advantage of an "early-bird" special rate.

Read more news from the White River Valley School Board in Thursday's edition.