Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Connectivity topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Georgetown ISD says ParentSquare rollout, website overhaul and volunteer expansion boosted family outreach
Summary
At a Jan. 7 board workshop, Georgetown ISD staff reported the district’s switch to ParentSquare and a new website CMS have raised contactability and open rates, and officials described expanded volunteer programs, mentoring partnerships and districtwide holiday support.
Georgetown ISD trustees on Jan. 7 heard a progress report on the district’s strategic priority No. 4 — community and connectivity — that highlighted a districtwide move to the ParentSquare messaging platform, a new content-management system for websites and a push to expand volunteers and mentoring programs.
Melinda Brasier, who led the presentation, said ParentSquare replaced the district’s prior messaging system in summer 2024 and added two-way messaging and language translation. "We have 100% contactability," Brasier said, adding the district’s current open rate is "at about 90%" compared with roughly 65% on the previous system. She said contact options now include text, email and app notifications and that users can select how they receive messages.
The changes, Brasier said, let nurses, teachers and coaches send targeted messages while protecting parents’ contact information. She also noted the system pulls language preferences from Skyward so messages can appear in a family’s home language. "This is a game changer for us," Brasier said of the translation and two-way features.
Board members heard that the district also replaced its website platform, moving from Blackboard to FinalSight. Brasier said that transition consolidated content from roughly 20 sites and about 10,000 pages to 22 sites with about 6,800 pages and that mobile engagement has risen since the change.
On volunteers, Brasier described the district’s MVPS (Relatrix) system for managing volunteers and said about 8,000 people are registered in the system, about 2,000 of whom are district employees. She said ‘‘more than 500’’ volunteers serve one-on-one with students and that there are approximately 329 registered reading buddies (quoted in the transcript as "3 29"). The district has about 35 paid volunteer coordinators across campuses responsible for pairing volunteers with opportunities and receiving stipend support for that work.
Brasier described mentoring as an attendance and engagement tool and cited a statistic in the presentation that students are "52% more likely to show up to school if they know that there's somebody there for them." A trustee shared a personal mentor-impact story during the discussion.
District staff also reviewed community partnerships and holiday benevolence programs. Brasier said partner organizations — including the district’s education foundation and local nonprofits — provided food, clothing and gift cards across all campuses during the holidays; she estimated "more than 60,000" items and said a school-supplies drive distributed roughly 1,000 backpacks.
Brasier said the district will continue training volunteer coordinators, expand partnerships where appropriate (she cited a planned Costco reading initiative that will start at one campus and serve an estimated 40 additional students), and run surveys in the spring to collect community feedback. Trustees praised the communications and technology teams for standing up the systems and supporting outreach.
No formal votes or motions occurred during the presentation; the board moved next to discuss legislative priorities for the 2025 session.
