Hall County Schools in Northern Georgia is leveraging a suite of powerful and innovative mobile communications tools from Crescerance, an Atlanta based company, for the upcoming school year, including a new integrated weather reporting system. This new tool, known as the “Inclement Weather Reporting System”, will be part of the larger mobile communications app that Crescerance is creating for Hall County as the 2014-15 school year gets underway.
Dr. Aaron Turpin, Executive Director of Technology for the Hall County School District, is excited about this new partnership with Crescerance and how it is bringing innovative new tools and technologies to the county. According to Dr. Turpin, “we live in a mobile, on-demand world and want to provide a convenient way for our parents, students, and community to connect with our schools and our district directly from their mobile device”
Crescerance co-founder Namit Bhatia says “School Districts in Georgia and other parts of the country have had the difficult challenge of dealing with a lot of surprise crises lately: active shooter, inclement weather and other such. Easy and expedient communication can make decision-making a lot easier in such situations. A district’s own mobile app is a very natural place for stakeholders to look to for help with better communication, and we are here to ensure that that piece of the puzzle is simplified.”
The Inclement Weather Reporting (IWR) System was created to make the weather reporting and decision-making process easier, more “real time”, and more accurate for larger school districts. Due to the distances between various schools in a district, it can become quite difficult for school administrators to confidently make well-informed and timely decisions based on abrupt weather changes in different locations. By working with Crescerance and leveraging the IWR product, Hall County Schools have found an ideal solution to this problem.
The IWR can be accessed directly through a school district’s mobile app, powered by Crescerance. In the case of Hall County, when adverse weather occurs during the school year, users of the mobile app can simply pull out their smartphone or tablet and log into the IWR to report the incident. The interface is simple and intuitive, allowing the user to quickly report on the nature and severity of various weather and road conditions at their current location. The entire reporting process takes just seconds, and the aggregated results can be viewed on a map in real-time by the school district administrators.
Based on the severity of the reports, districts will be able to use the same mobile application to send a push notification to all users to inform them of a decision to close schools or not. The IWR thus provides an end-to-end solution for districts such as Hall Country to make the most accurate, data-driven decisions, in real-time, when adverse weather impacts the county, as it inevitably does during the school year.
About Hall County Schools:
Hall County Schools is known for their focus on innovative programs. In January 2014, Hall County Schools was recognized as the fastest growing charter school district in the entire nation as evident by 23 of the district’s 33 schools are either charter schools or programs of choice tailoring instruction that is relevant to individual students interests and talents. Hall County stands as a national leader in personalized learning committed to innovation and advancement with robust Wi-Fi enabled schools with all campuses as Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) learning environments.
Gordon Higgins, Director of Community Relations, 770-534-1080, gordon.higgins@hallco.org
About Crescerance:
“Crescere” means to grow or expand, and that’s exactly what we’re here to help you do! We’re here to give your school the edge it deserves with its very own custom mobile solution. We strongly believe in the power of parent and community involvement for a child’s education. We also believe that involved communities contribute to higher academic and social outcomes, stronger values, and more successful lives.
We also recognize that it’s not always easy for parents to stay involved with and engaged in their children’s education. That’s why we have combined our rich experience in education and mobile app development and leveraged it to help schools more effectively reach their communities through the power of mobile.
Larry Parker, Solutions Advisor, 404-913-2737, larryparker@crescerance.com