School district website app available

The Hot Springs County School District’s Tech Specialist Rick Groh provided a primer to the school board on the district’s new website app on Dec. 15

Groh reported the app had been under development since the start of the school year, and explained how it ties directly into the school district’s website, which is about two years old.

According to Groh, the calendars and announcements for the district and each of its schools, that already appear online, are also available via the smartphone app.

“Any time we send an all-call, or a push notification, from any of the schools, or from the district itself, like on snow days, it pushes directly to the app, and you get the the notification on your (phone) app,” Groh said, adding the app has been “specifically designed” for the Hot Springs County School District. “It has our logo and our colors, purple and gold.”

While Groh noted that users can turn on notifications for any or all of the district’s schools, Superintendent Dustin Hunt elaborated that the notifications extend beyond emergencies and school closures, to cover the daily news and events for each school.

Groh explained that the app pulls its notices from the schools’ respective online calendars, and concurred with Hot Springs County School Board Chair Sherman Skelton that it’s not just students’ immediate families, but also their extended relatives who live outside the area, or even the state, who can remain up-to-date on what’s happening within the district.

“Anybody can download this app, from either Google Play or the app store,” Groh said.

“Even if they don’t have a student, they can sign up for push notifications,” Hunt said. “And as we go into the legislative session, and share data and evidence from the district about legislative pieces, those can all go out via push notifications.”

Board trustee Jennifer Axtell inquired about keeping track of sporting events, since she previously copied each event individually from the wrestling calendar on the district website.

“Will this just send me the announcements if there’s a wrestling tournament?” Axtell asked.

“It’ll do it daily, every morning,” Groh said. “The app will open a notification for whatever school you’ve signed up for — if you want, you can sign up for all of them — and you can click on that, and it’ll bring up the calendar, with the events that are going on that day.”

Hunt pointed out that the app not only has been shared with the local chamber of commerce, but its QR code will also be posted in the entryways of each school district building, so visitors can scan the code and download the app for themselves.

Groh clarified that the app’s notifications provide basic updates while linking to the district website, which offers more detailed information, and he anticipates the app will ultimately presage much broader access to a number of the district’s currently untapped data resources, as well as foster more interactive communication between the school district, its students’ families and the community as a whole.