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Olentangy to roll out ParentSquare after staff survey finds high internal satisfaction but message-volume concerns
Summary
After a staff communications survey showed strong approval for timeliness and transparency, the Olentangy communications department announced the district will launch ParentSquare to centralize family and staff messaging and increase contactability and translation support.
The Olentangy Local School District will roll out the ParentSquare communications platform this summer to centralize district, school and classroom messaging, officials said during the board meeting.
Communications staff presented results from a February internal survey showing that roughly 85% of responding staff rated district internal communications as good or excellent, and that email and district updates were among the most-used sources. Staff also flagged message volume and a desire for more targeted, role-specific communications as consistent themes.
Communications director Miss Davis said the district piloted ParentSquare with several schools, athletic groups and staff groups and plans a phased launch in June, July and August. "This easy to use platform with integrated school services best support staff communication and streamline workflow and increase job efficiencies," Miss Davis said.
Why it matters: Administrators said the platform will allow the district to reach families by email, text or app; provide language translation and ADA compliance features; and reduce duplicate messaging by consolidating newsletters and sign-up tools. The district also cited the need for a new tool after guidance around student-data privacy in Senate Bill 29 prompted clubs and teams to seek alternatives for group communication.
Pilot results and timeline District communications staff said the ParentSquare pilot produced more than 2,600 registered users, over 2,000 mobile app users, 14,000 messages, 1,400 posts and 718 calendar events during testing. The administration said ParentSquare can deliver large-scale notifications (the vendor’s capacity was summarized as delivering hundreds of texts and tens of thousands of emails per second) and provides two-way messaging and sign-up features.
Miss Davis told the board the district will continue email for users who prefer it and will offer a sign-up option for non-district-affiliated residents who want certain district-level announcements. The administration plans to provide staff office hours and summer trainings, finalize a data sync with the district student-information system (PowerSchool), and offer technology assistance at back-to-school and support nights.
Board questions and follow-up Board members asked whether families who do not want the app can still be contacted; Miss Davis said yes. The board also asked about non-district residents receiving district-level messages; Miss Davis said the district will keep an email sign-up path for those communications. Implementation steps include finalizing data migration, launching promotional materials and providing staff training and support through convocation and summer office hours.
No board vote was required for the platform update; communications staff presented the plan and answered questions.
