MARCH 22, 2005
BY EMILY WEINER
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

Bellingham School officials hope it will never be necessary to use a notification system put in place this fall. But in an emergency, a computerized system could telephone 1,500 parents an hour.

A short, automated message would tell parents, or an emergency contact listed on school registration forms, where to find more information - from a Web site, local media or by phone.

The emergency notification system is one feature of the Public Information Emergency Response system that the school district has been using this school year, and in a limited way since 2001. PIER also allows school officials to conduct online surveys, post press releases on the district Web site from any office or home computer and let emergency responders view school information.

In September 2004, when Squalicum High School had to be evacuated because of a bomb scare, the emergency notification system was not yet up and running. But another PIER feature let the district put a series of press releases on its Web site - to tell parents Back to School Night had been canceled and later to announce that the suspicious device contained no explosives and school would reopen in the morning.

About 5 a.m. on Jan. 7, without having to leave home, a district employee used PIER to put an announcement on the district's Web site that schools would be closed because of snow. From Jan. 6 through Jan. 14, the district's weather-related Web announcements received 160,000 hits, school board members were told last week.

In February, the district used PIER to conduct an online survey of staff and families about the scheduling and structure of parent-teacher conferences.