Discussions

We currently have 83 Motorola radios used by staff. They are outdated and no longer made. Instead of buying 83 new radios, we are looking for alternative ways to communicate with staff during the day. Teachers are required to have their radio with them all day, so we thought, why not have them use their phones instead of a radio? We are looking at the Zello Work app and have started a trial. So far, so good. The only caveat we see is if a teacher is on "standby" meaning the app isn't running in the background. What are other schools doing for staff communication? Our solution must include "outside" the classroom communication, so classroom-only phones or an intercom system will not work for us.
#General

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Martha Clagg
Technology Director
Skycrest Christian School
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Hi Martha,

I would like to dive a little more into this.  We are in the same boat.  We have Motorola walkie talkies for specific events like dismissal.  For teacher communications we only have the classroom wired phones and then the use of their cell phones (if they have them on hand). The walkie talkies allow quick and easy communication while keeping our eyes on the kids.  When we use an app on the phone, our eyes no longer are looking at the kids and are now looking at the phones and we feel that's when something bad can happen.  So we are looking at expanding our use of the walkie talkie for that reason.  I've heard of Zoom phones, also push-to-talk phones from Kyocera and others, an app from Verizon called PTT and other stuff.  Are you using these devices solely for communication with faculty throughout the day or are you also looking at this in the case of an emergency situation where you might have the kids in lock-down or off campus and what's the best tool for that?  Our Head of School is thinking that going with walkie talkies or short wave radios is best as it allows your eyes to always be on the kids and if anything major happens and cell towers are out, it still allows communications between parties.  

Thanks for proposing this question.  Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and others' thoughts as well.

Glen Worthing
Director of Technology
St. Anne's Episcopal School, Denver, CO


Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2022 02:37 PM
From: Martha Clagg
Subject: Replacing Motorola campus radios

We currently have 83 Motorola radios used by staff. They are outdated and no longer made. Instead of buying 83 new radios, we are looking for alternative ways to communicate with staff during the day. Teachers are required to have their radio with them all day, so we thought, why not have them use their phones instead of a radio? We are looking at the Zello Work app and have started a trial. So far, so good. The only caveat we see is if a teacher is on "standby" meaning the app isn't running in the background. What are other schools doing for staff communication? Our solution must include "outside" the classroom communication, so classroom-only phones or an intercom system will not work for us.
#General

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Martha Clagg
Technology Director
Skycrest Christian School
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I think requiring employees to use their personal cell phones for school communication might not be a great plan unless you are going to give them a stipend for device / data plan.

We are just now getting our FCC license and new Motorola radios after using consumer junk for years. We only use them for recess and emergency. We don't have one per teacher, I could see how that could get expensive. We have classroom phones and VOIP PA so in the classroom alerting is handled that way.

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Brian Hoyt
French American School of Puget Sound
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2022 02:37 PM
From: Martha Clagg
Subject: Replacing Motorola campus radios

We currently have 83 Motorola radios used by staff. They are outdated and no longer made. Instead of buying 83 new radios, we are looking for alternative ways to communicate with staff during the day. Teachers are required to have their radio with them all day, so we thought, why not have them use their phones instead of a radio? We are looking at the Zello Work app and have started a trial. So far, so good. The only caveat we see is if a teacher is on "standby" meaning the app isn't running in the background. What are other schools doing for staff communication? Our solution must include "outside" the classroom communication, so classroom-only phones or an intercom system will not work for us.
#General

------------------------------
Martha Clagg
Technology Director
Skycrest Christian School
------------------------------