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District to expand StudentSquare messaging for older students; cell‑phone rules to be reinforced
Summary
District IT staff described a StudentSquare feature that will let students receive and archive messages on Chromebooks and message linked emergency contacts; the district plans to enable the feature for junior high and high school but not Manchester Elementary at this time. A classroom cell‑phone guidance video will be shown to teachers at orientation.
District staff presented a new StudentSquare feature in ParentSquare and a cell‑phone guidance video the district will use at staff orientation.
The chair introduced a short video that will be shown to teachers and later posted for students and parents; he said staff will give students warnings and signage to ease the transition from permissive outside access to more limited in‑school access.
Randy (staff member) explained StudentSquare: students and linked parent contacts can receive district messages on Chromebooks, messages are archived for staff review, and students cannot message other students. Randy said the linking process is controlled through PowerSchool contact fields and typically permits emergency contacts (for example, grandparents or designated emergency contacts) to be linked so students can message only those approved contacts. He said the district has already used parts of the feature at the high school and plans to enable StudentSquare for the intermediate school; Manchester Elementary is "not at this point" in the rollout.
Randy described the archival feature as a record of communications that staff can review if questions arise about what students or parents received. The district did not detail a formal timeline for full elementary deployment but said the intermediate and high school rollouts are planned.
No board motion to adopt or mandate the app was recorded; the discussion was framed as an operational update and pilot rollout for secondary grades.
