School district aims to streamline communication

A preview of the new Blaine School District app, which will launch at the end of summer. Photo courtesy of Blaine School District.

By Oliver Lazenby

By the end of summer, the Blaine school district plans to launch a new website and mobile phone app aimed at making it faster and easier to post information online.

The district is working with a new system called Thrillshare that will allow it to send alerts and post updates to its website, app and social media channels from one platform. The app will have push notifications to alert people to school news as it’s

sent out.

District administrative assistant Tina Padilla said the district’s current website is outdated and cumbersome at a meeting with the school board on May 29.

“I updated the current website today and it takes 16 individual steps just to publish one update,” Padilla said. “So, as you can imagine, I’m thrilled.”

The district’s new website will have some features that the current one doesn’t, such as a search bar and better archiving ability.

Currently, the school district alerts families of emergencies or cancellations with a program called K12 Alerts, which sends a recorded message to telephones. That will be incorporated in the new system.

In the event of a security emergency like the email threat that canceled school this February, this new platform and app will allow the district to communicate faster, Padilla said.

“It gives us a better ability – with just one step on our end – to communicate that type of situation through multiple channels all at once,” Padilla said.