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District IT presents Focus communications platform for parent messaging and translation
Summary
The district CIO demonstrated the Focus platform’s phone, text, email and app messaging features, translation into more than 100 languages, text-to-speech and upcoming native SMS reply capability; board members welcomed a single parent-facing app.
Rick Anthony, Granite School District’s chief information officer, presented the Focus communications platform and outlined its features, including phone, text, email and app messaging, message translation in more than 100 languages, text-to-speech, polling and sign-up functionality and forthcoming native text-reply capability.
"There are universal features for phone, text, email and app messaging," the CIO said, noting the district is integrating Focus into the existing Granite SD application. Board members expressed enthusiasm for consolidating parent communication tools; Karyn Winder said she had advocated for a unified system for years and welcomed the new resource for parents, teachers and administrators.
District staff said the platform will deliver real-time response tracking and enable individual messaging between parents and schools. No implementation date or cost details were provided in the discussion recorded in the minutes.
