Not that Brookhaven families often have to wait by thetelevision or the radio to find out about snow days, but if theydid, the waiting would be over.

The Brookhaven School District is implementing a new alertsystem that will keep communication on the front burner forfamilies with children in the system. District Superintendent LeaBarrett said alerts for things like weather-related schoolclosings, test reminders, and even football practice schedules willbe sent to families via telephone from now on.

“This does make having a good phone number on file incrediblyimportant for parents,” Barrett said. “Just make sure we have agood accurate phone number. We’ll use priority number, so make surewhen you’re providing that information at the first of the schoolyear, you give us the best number, whether that’s your home phoneor cell phone.”

The alerts work similarly to a system put in place by theLincoln County School District over the last few years. Theautomated phone system gives administrators the capacity to senddistrict-wide messages, or simply messages to lists ofchildren.

“For instance, if we needed to send something to only the fourthgrade, we could do that,” Barrett said.

Administrators are taking measures to make sure the system doesnot call homes after 8:30 p.m., Barrett said, and school closingcalls should be going out as close to 6:15 a.m. as possible. Testruns at the end of the school year showed that the system couldmake about half the calls in a four-minute period.

And the system has been tested in real life, Barrett said,though a lot of parents weren’t sure what it is they were listeningto.

“We had an early closing because of bad weather and had justgotten the system up and running,” she said. “We used it before wetold people we had it, and the phones rang until about 8:30 thatnight with parents concerned about what that was.”

Barrett said the system has the capacity to text or e-mail,though at this point that capability is not being utilized.

“We’re working on that now so we can do that,” Barrett said.

The message can be recorded by Barrett or a principal, teacheror coach, she said. It may transmit anything from a reminder forstate testing, a reminder of school starting back or report cardsgoing out, or messages from teachers to their classes.

“The bottom line is better communication between the parents andthe school,” Barrett said. “If we can make that better foreveryone, we’re glad to spend the dollars and spend the time to dothat.”

Meanwhile, the system is also meant to be parent-friendly, andwill not be over-used. Barrett said the school district encouragesparents to give them feedback on the process or any wayimprovements can be made.

“We’ll try not to use it so much that parents are immune to it,”Barrett said. “And we’re anxious to hear from parents if there areproblems with it or if they see a way we can improve it.”