Roslyn school district develops phone app for parents, students

Amelia Camurati
Roslyn school district released a mobile phone app for teachers, parents and students to stay up-do-date with district news. (Screenshot courtesy of Roslyn school district)

The Roslyn school district recently launched a mobile app for parents and students to get information without having to comb the district’s website.

Director of community relations Barry Edelson and chief technology officer Jason Lopez made a presentation to the board of education Nov. 16, demonstrating how to install the app, titled Roslyn Public Schools, and what features it provides.

Edelson said the app, which is a streamlined version of the district’s website but properly formatted for mobile devices, will be customizable, so a parent with students at East Hills School and the high school will only get information about those two schools.

The app’s default setting provides district-wide information.

“It’s pretty basic,” Edelson said. “It’s intuitive, but we designed an app that is integrated to our website. It’s a way for people to get information from our digital communications, social media posts, announcements, calendars, news and all kinds of things. Hopefully it will be a much more convenient format than the mobile version of the website.”

The platform is owned by Blackboard, the same company responsible for the district’s mass messaging program and the website, and is updated in tandem with the website. Edelson said the district used analytics from the website to see which areas are most popular, including the school lunch menu, athletics schedules and calendars.

Edelson said for the app, middle school and high school athletics have been divided into two sections.

The app will also alert users of emergency notifications, such as snow days, Edelson said. Users can also directly message any district staffer through the app’s directory.

Edelson said a second app, Roslyn High School, is not officially affiliated with the district and is believed to be a former student’s project. The official app has the district’s seal as the image.

The app is available in all smartphone app stores, Edelson said, and an email was sent to parents and staff last week with instructions for how to install and customize the app.

“Like all things electronic, it’s a perpetual work in progress,” Edelson said. “This is the beginning, and we expect it will develop over time. We don’t want it to be cluttered; we want this to be a streamlined gateway to get to things.”

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