Within the past few weeks, the LSTs initiated a method of texting passes to students, straying away from the old-fashioned delivery of paper passes. This week, however, this practice has been stopped and school officials had no comment on it at the moment.
The A-F LST was the first LST to institute this new technique, but the other two soon joined the trend. Mrs. Barbara Whalen, an A-F secretary, was the mastermind behind this idea.
“I think kids look at their phone all the time and that’s probably more accurate than a slip of paper. We are really excited about it and [it had] been working really well,” she said.
Mrs. Whalen noted that almost all passes had been texted with the exception of “now” passes and off-campus passes for students whose parents call at the last minute. The texts cannot be sent and received during a class period because students are expected to have their phones put away at this time.
“We think it will have less interruption on the class itself and the teachers because every time we take a pass, the teacher usually gets interrupted,” stated Mrs. Whalen.
The secretaries were able to access the cell phone numbers of the students via Infosnap. When parents register their children for school, one of the optional questions is their student’s cell phone number. Mrs. Whalen explained that 71 percent of the students in her LST have registered phone numbers in the database.
The secretaries are able to type the text via a Gmail program called Google Voice. The student will then receive the text from a number that is linked to the LST. If a student’s number is not registered or if they are unsure if their number is registered, they can stop by their LST and verify with the secretaries.
Lauren Brennan, a senior at LHS, thinks it is “very cool and probably way easier [for the secretaries] to send texts for small things like yearbook questionnaires and LST pickups.”
