A trustee with Prairie South School Division believes an app the organization uses to communicate with students and families could strengthen that connection and better distribute useful resources.
Division administration presented a report about the Remind app during the Feb. 6 board meeting after receiving an inquiry from trustee Crystal Froese in January.
The report explained that the app is a communications tool to help teachers or schools stay connected with students and families and is available on smartphones, the web and other platforms.
“Built for education with a mobile-first messaging approach, it is easy to set up and get started,” the report said.
The app has been around since 2011 and is free for educational purposes, while it gives teachers, coaches or organizers the ability to reach students and parents quickly and safely. The app’s creators built it for the education sector, so personal information is private and stays private; students and parents don’t need to provide their cell numbers or email details.
Users must remove themselves from the service, while the account owner can also remove the app, the report said. Meanwhile, people used Remind 101 regularly before 2019, when schools were less familiar with Google Classroom and other learning management tools.
Most schools in Prairie South use the app, while it’s used regularly for students in Grade 5 and beyond, the report continued.
Further, classroom teachers use it for non-critical but important communications with homes, such as reminders about due dates for class field trip forms or spirit dress-up days. Teams, clubs and curricular programs also use the app to communicate about upcoming events.
The report gave examples of some schools that use the Remind app, including Central, Palliser Heights and Sunningdale, which use it for reminders about activities with clubs, teams and classroom events.
“I really appreciate this report because, boy, does this app do a lot that I had no idea (about),” said Froese.
Since the division talks regularly about communicating with the public, the trustee wondered if it could use the app to strengthen communications and enhance the messages the board office sends out. For example, they could improve their messaging about bus cancellations or push out more mental health-related resources.
Froese didn’t want the division office to overload or inundate people with messages but thought it could use the app to reach people who don’t visit Facebook or check their emails often. Since the app is specific to schools and the division, people could take the messaging more seriously.
“Maybe without having to re-create the wheel, maybe this is something that might have an opportunity for us to enhance it,” she said. “Because if we have both students and parents accessing this app, if we miss one, we might get the other.”
Furthermore, Prairie South could use the Remind app more often at certain times of the year during communications campaigns, Froese continued. Since the app has other components, she wanted the division to explore the cost of using those features.
“Even right now (though), it’s pretty terrific the way it can be used … ,” she added.
The next PSSD board meeting is Tuesday, March 5.
