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Olentangy to adopt ParentSquare after staff survey finds strong internal communication but message overload
Summary
A staff survey found 85% rated district internal communication good or excellent but raised concerns about message volume and platform fragmentation; the district will phase in ParentSquare with a summer rollout and training to centralize communication and improve contactability.
District communications staff presented results of a February staff survey and outlined a phased rollout of ParentSquare to streamline family and staff messaging.
Miss Davis said nearly 85% of staff rated internal communications as good or excellent and that 83% of staff feel district-level updates often or always keep them informed. At the same time, staff respondents expressed concerns about message overload, inconsistent timing for some updates and difficulty navigating multiple platforms. Suggestions included consolidating newsletters by audience or topic and improving SharePoint and staff-portal usability.
As a response, the district plans a phased ParentSquare implementation integrated with PowerSchool. Miss Davis reported pilot metrics: over 2,600 registered users, more than 2,000 mobile app users, 168 school/group pilot groups, over 14,000 messages and more than 1,400 posts in the pilot. The presenter said the platform is expected to improve contactability and two-way messaging, support translation and ADA compliance, and offer calendars, volunteer sign-ups and event RSVPs. The presenter outlined training, office hours, data migration tasks with technology staff and a summer support schedule with a targeted push at convocation in August.
Board members asked whether users could receive messages without installing the app and how non-district residents could sign up; staff confirmed district emails and a non-district signup option will be maintained. The board signaled support for the platform while asking communications staff to continue focusing on clarity, audience segmentation and reduced redundancy.
