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School Messenger - Information for Parents

Background Information:
Bath County Public Schools has been using a parent notification service the for a number of years to provide timely school closing information and occasional emergency notifications. By default, the service will dial up to three of the telephone numbers and email addresses you have provided via the emergency care form completed at the beginning of the school year.  We recognize that different types of notifications warrant different levels of priority contact. While we are confident that you would want us to use all available means to contact you in a true emergency situation, we understand that you may want to restrict school closing information and other important notifications to certain phones/accounts.  Below are instructions for activating your personal School Messenger Contact Manager online account and linking it to your child’s contact information. From the School Messenger website you can adjust contact information to your specific needs, overriding some of the information exported from our student information system.  You will also be able to add text messaging as an option for contacting you. You will need to activate the account using the primary telephone assigned to your child’s school records, as this is a key security component of the online activation process. If you do not have internet access at home or have difficulty accessing your personal School Messenger account, then you may contact the school for assistance. The following school personnel will assist you as necessary to ensure that your contact information is updated in our student information system and that you receive important/emergency notifications at the numbers/addresses you prefer.
 
BCHS: Lucy McCune 540-839-5775 and Katie Keyser 540-839-2431
VES: Sarah Burns 540-839-5395
MES: Donna Campagna 540-997-5452 or 540-839-5804
 
Finally, some individuals on the calling list have asked about the introductory message on notification calls that asks you to Press 1. Depending on your phone service, phone type and answering machine, if you don’t press 1 then you may not hear the school closing message or the system may call you again since it didn’t think it had delivered the message.
 
 
School Messenger Online Contact Manager Setup:
From your internet browser, go to the School Messenger Contact Manager.  We recommend that you add this site to your browser's favorites list.
  1. Your browser will go to the Contact Manager Sign Up page where you will need to
    • Enter a valid email address, a password (at least 5 characters) and your name to create an account. You’ll use your email address and the password you enter here to sign in later.
    • Click Sign Up when you are done. [Note: School Messenger has a strict privacy policy and does not sell or distribute your email address or other contact information to any 3rd party.]
  2. Check your email. There will be an Account Activation email from School Messenger which contains a link to activate your account. This link will take you to a confirmation page where you must enter your password in order to activate your account.
  3. Once you’ve activated your account, you’re ready to add your contact information to your account. This is done by validating from your home phone. Click Next to begin your contact activation by phone.
    • Input your child’s ID number - he/she knows this number for school lunches, library, etc.
    • If you have more than one child in school, click the Add More button and input that ID number.
    • Click Next to continue
    • A set of instructions appears on the next window. You will need to call School Messenger at 866-928-2888 from your home phone (or cell phone if that number is in our database and you have been receiving notifications on that phone).
    • When prompted, select option 2.
    • When prompted, enter the activation code displayed in bold letters in the browser window.
  4. The Messages screen will display your recent School Messenger notifications. If you’re really bored you can listen to them over and over.
    • Click on the Contacts tab and then click Edit to see the default settings for your contact information. You can check which types of messages you would like to receive and at which phone number(s) or email address(es).
    • Important!: Please leave all contact information checked for emergency notifications. We want to be sure that you are found in an emergency!
    • Please note that school closing notices are in the ‘Important’ job type. For now, our plans are to only use the notification program for school closing and emergency notices.
    • The other job types listed (General and Survey) are not used at this time, but may be at some point, so it would be good to have at least one phone number checked for these job types
    • Add other phone numbers and associated notification types, as you wish, and as space allows.
    • You may enter a cell phone number for a text (SMS) message if you wish.
    • Make sure that you click Save when you are finished making changes.
We hope you find the Contact Manager useful to customize your School Messenger notifications. Timely and accurate parent notifications through School Messenger are critical for the effective operation of the school division, but most importantly help ensure the safety of Bath County children.