Parents and others close to the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District now have a new way to receive vital information.
The district announced Tuesday it would be transitioning to a new text message service powered by its mass messaging provider SchoolMessenger.
In order to receive messages, parents must opt in to the service. Parents whose numbers are already in the district’s database should receive an invitation Wednesday. Those who previously subscribed to another text service, or if a number is changed or added to the student systems database, the new number will automatically be sent an opt-in message. It may take 24 hours or more for the numbers to be updated in the district database.
Public information officer Nicole Thomas said the system would mainly be used to get information about early dismissals and other urgent changes.
“It works a little bit differently than other services that we have used in the past, because it does require us to recognize your phone number,” Thomas said. “Basically, the way this service works is, for all of the wireless numbers that we have in our student database, those numbers will receive a message from SchoolMessenger. Previously, the parent would have to text the code to a phone number.”
Thomas said the new service was primarily intended for parents and guardians of students, and emphasized the same messages would go out on the district’s Twitter page at the same time the text alerts went out.Thomas also said the system was easier for the district to manage on its end.
“For members of our greater school community who want to be connected with us to make sure that they are aware when we have to make decisions, our Twitter @StarkvilleSD is a great way to do that, or following our Facebook page,” Thomas said.
Message and data rates may apply with the new system.