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School district is developing an information-sharing app
Want to see what your child’s school lunch menu is for the day? There’s an app for that. Or there will be soon.
The Rockville Centre School District is developing its own application for Android and Apple mobile devices to give parents quick and easy access to some of the most often accessed information on the district’s website.
“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for us to allow people to connect to the school district and stay in touch with all that’s going on in our schools, with literally a touch of their finger,” said Superintendent Dr. William Johnson. “The app is going to make it a lot easier.”
The app would not replace the school district’s website, but would supplement it. Only the most important information about the schools would be put on the app to ensure that it would remain easy to navigate. There would be lunch menus for each school, for instance, as well as information about who to call for attendance and other contact information.
The district announced the project at the Board of Education meeting on Nov. 19. “We’ve been very anxious to get into the app world,” said Johnson, “and we’ve arrived.”
One of the main features of the app would be “push” notifications, with which apps can notify users of new messages or information. If there were important information that needed to be sent out — like the closing of schools for a snow day — the district could use the app to push it to the phones and tablets of everyone who had downloaded the app. Users would get the notification right away, without having to check the district’s website or wait for news reports.
Push notifications have the benefit of being somewhat more eye-catching for mobile device users who are already bombarded by messages. “I see it with myself,” said Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Chris Pellettieri. “If it’s a text message, I’m going to glance at it quickly and see what’s going on. An email is one of hundreds in a day.”
Since not everyone has an Android or Apple device, however, the app would not replace the district’s emergency phone notification system, which calls every house in the district with important messages.
The idea for the app came about when the school board challenged the district to come up with ways to communicate more frequently with residents, get information to them more easily and make it more accessible. “We kind of picked it up and ran with it,” said Pellettieri.
Rockville Centre isn’t the first area district to come up with the idea. “Lynbrook has an app already,” Pellettieri said. “They beat us. Which is rare, that someone beats Rockville Centre.”
The app is still in the early stages of development by Blackboard Inc., the company that also created the district’s website. Pellettieri said that he hopes the app will be available, free, sometime in January.
