Times have changed. Technology has changed. Parents are asking for better communication with their children’s schools and the Carrollton school system is responding with a system aimed at reaching parents in emergencies, but also keeping them better informed about what’s going on at the schools.

In the next semester the school system hopes to initiate SchoolCast, a program that allows administrators to instantly contact groups of parents, students and teachers by e-mail, text message or phone with just a click of the mouse, said Kent Edwards, assistant superintendent.

“All you do is access the Web site,” Edwards said. “You type (the message) in - and boom. It goes.”

The upgrade was generated by examining the school safety plan and brainstorming about improvements, he said. One goal was to have instantaneous communication with parents that is non-intrusive.

The system could have been useful last year when a tornado passed through the county early in the morning and knocked out power to the schools. Parents were arriving at school with their children, unaware that classes had been canceled. Meanwhile, secretaries were inside calling parents individually to pick up children who had already been dropped off at school.

“We had staff outside just getting those parents,” Edwards said. “Really, the great majority of our parents have text capability or phone capability or e-mail capability and they check that on an ongoing basis.”

Edwards noted that many colleges are using similar programs as emergency notification systems for students.

The University of West Georgia is one of those colleges that has picked up the program.

Tom Mackel, director of public safety at the university, said UWG has had the system for about eight months.

After the Virginia Tech shootings, the communication system became a standard at colleges and universities, he said.

“We’re using it strictly for emergencies - tornadoes, if we were to have an active shooter, something of that nature,” Mackel said. “What the goal was, when you see UWG emergency alert, it strictly means you need to take this call because something bad is happening.”

However, the system does have the versatility to be used for standard announcements.

It can be broken down by classroom, so a teacher can create a class list to notify parents of special events, tests or projects coming up or even if a class is running late returning from a field trip. The system will not be using the program at the classroom level at first. The administrators will be using SchoolCast for school-wide or system-wide announcements for a time while parents and students get signed up and familiar with the program.

The system does have some drawbacks, Mackel said.

For one, it is completely voluntary. Of the roughly 12,500 students, staff and teachers eligible for the program at the university, only 1,300 have signed up so far.

In addition, students may not be able to access the messages during class time or while at work because they aren’t allowed to have their cell phones on, he said.

“These systems are not an answer to all of our prayers,” Mackel said.

But it is an extra level of security that many schools are taking advantage of for a minimal price.

The system costs the university 95 cents per student per year. The city school system will be paying roughly $5,000 a year for the service.

Considering the cost of postage when mailing important information to parents, it’s a bargain, Edwards said.

The administrators asked the central staff and principals to analyze the SchoolCast program and find the drawbacks or the holes, he said.

“We just couldn’t find one,” Edwards said. “We’ll see how it goes.”