SchoolConnects - School District 67

SchoolConnects 

Web Users’ Guide 

Synrevoice Technologies Inc.

SchoolConnects TM Version 9.21 or later 

Copyright © 2002 - 2010 Synrevoice Technologies Inc. 

Although the information in this document has been carefully reviewed, Synrevoice Technologies 

Inc, (“Synrevoice”) does not warrant it to be free of errors or omissions. Synrevoice reserves the 

right to make corrections, updates, revisions or changes to the information in this document. 

UNLESS OTHERWISE EXPRESSLY STATED BY SYNREVOICE, THE PROGRAM DESCRIBED 

IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, 

EITHER MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT 

WILL SYNREVOICE BE LIABLE TO ANYONE FOR SPECIAL, COLLATERAL, INCIDENTAL 

OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY LOST 

PROFITS, DATA, OR SAVINGS, ARISING OUT OF THE USER OF OR INABILITY TO USE 

THIS PROGRAM. 

This document is protected by copyright and you may not redistribute or translate it into another 

language, in part or in whole. 

You may only redistribute this document internally within your organization (for example, on your 

intranet) provided that you continue to check with Synrevoice for updates, and update your version 

of the documentation. You may not make it available to your organization over the internet. 

SchoolConnects TM is a trademark of Synrevoice Technologies Inc. 

Microsoft is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United 

States and/or other countries. 

Other products or services mentioned in this document are identified by the trademarks or service 

marks of their respective owners.

SchoolConnects Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 

The SchoolConnectsWeb Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 

The Navigation Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 

SchoolConnects Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 

School properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 

The Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 

The student household contact data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 

The relative contact data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 

Types of Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 

Attendance Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 

Announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 

About Emergency messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 

About canned messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 

Call-In Profile Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 

Call-in profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 

Call-in profile reference card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 

Example: the football coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 

The superintendent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 

All grade 9 students in the district. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 

About Message Expiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 

About Call Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 

About Email Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 

About Message Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 

When to use what priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 

Contact Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 

Difference Between the Address Book and a Contact List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 

Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 

Contact list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 

The User Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 

User types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 

User properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 

District administrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 

About Importing Contact Data from a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

Do-Not-Call Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 

Global Do-Not-Call list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 

School’s Do-Not-Call list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 

Message Suppression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 

Types of messages that are restricted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 

About Cascade Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 

Contact priorities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 

How cascade calling works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 

A message is considered delivered when ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 

If the message is not delivered ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 

SchoolConnectsWeb Users’ Guide 1

Using SchoolConnectsWeb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 

Create a School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 

Edit School Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 

Change Your Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 

Add a New User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 

Delete an Existing User Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 

Create an Announcement With Your Own Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 

Step 1: Identify the message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 

Step 2: Schedule delivery of your message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 

Step 3A: Record the message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 

Record a message in your own voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 

Generate a message using Text to Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 

Step 3B: Create the email contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 

Step 4: Specify who to send the message to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 

Step 5: Review the Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 

Choose Recipients from the Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 

Select the entire Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 

Select all members of a grade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 

Select individuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 

Choose Recipients from a Contact List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 

Select an entire contact list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 

Select a subset grouping from a contact list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 

Select individuals from a contact list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 

Obtain Recipients from an Import File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 

Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 

Identify the message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 

Schedule delivery of your message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 

Create the email contents (if applicable). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 

Specify who to send the message to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 

Step 5: Review the Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 

Work with Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 

Suspend a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 

View the recipients for a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 

Add more recipients to a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 

Listen to a sample call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 

Send a sample email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 

View the progress of a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 

Listen to call responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 

Reactivate a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 

Change message settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 

Send a Message Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 

Send the same message again to the same recipients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 

Send a new message to the same recipients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 

Create a Reusable Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 

View the reusable message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 

2 SchoolConnectsWeb Users’ Guide

Make a message reusable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 

Reuse a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 

Create a Quick Attendance Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 

If you import an absence file two or more times a day ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 

Create a Contact List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 

Modify a Contact List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 

Manually add contacts to a contact list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 

Add to a contact list from the Address Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 

Add to a contact list from an import file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 

Delete a record from the contact list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 

Change the telephone number for a contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 

Update the Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 

Import a new Address Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 

Search for a student in the Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 

Manually add a student to the Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 

Delete a student from the Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 

Prevent Calls to a Student or Phone Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 

Delete a record from the Do-Not-Call list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 

Restrict Messaging for a School or District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 

Change the restriction schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 

Cancel the current restriction schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 

SchoolConnects Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109 

Create an Attendance Message Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 

Attendance Message Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 

Create a Canned Message Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 

Canned Message Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 

Create a File Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 

Set Up a Call-In Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 

SchoolConnects Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131 

Available SchoolConnects Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 

Status Used in Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 

PIN Responses Used in Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 

Viewing Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 

Email a report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 

View a report online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 

Request a Notification Task Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 

Request an Export Call Responses Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 

Request a Call-In Profile Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 

Request a Report of Call-In Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 

Schedule a Recurring Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 

Retrieve Message History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 


SchoolConnects Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 

Address Book Fields and What They Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154 

Primary Student (Household) Contact Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 

Relative Contact Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 

Address Book Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 

What the Message Icons Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158 

Use School Announcement Settings Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159 

User Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160 

The Cascade Calling Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162 

Contact priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 

How cascade calling works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 

Cascade calling sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 

The Telemarketer Zapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164 


SchoolConnects Basics 

The SchoolConnects TM software (“SchoolConnects”) is a parent notification system 

used primarily by schools and school districts to notify parents about student 

attendance and to communicate school announcements and emergency messages to 

parents and the school community. 

SchoolConnectsWeb is the primary interface for SchoolConnects. Most daily or 

occasional functions can be done through SchoolConnectsWeb, which means that 

users can access the system from any machine on the same network without having to 

install any software. School administrators can use SchoolConnectsWeb to send 

automated telephone messages to their entire school community or to selected grades, 

groups, or individuals. District administrators can use SchoolConnectsWeb to send 

automated messages to one or more schools, the entire district, or to selected 

individuals or groups. 

This chapter describes the basic SchoolConnects concepts and introduces the 

SchoolConnectsWeb user interface. 

Contents: 

• The SchoolConnectsWeb Window 

• SchoolConnects Schools 

• The Address Book 

• Types of Messages 

• Attendance Messages 

• Announcements 

• Call-In Profile Messages 

• About Message Expiry 

• About Call Times 

• About Email Times 

• About Message Priority 

• Contact Lists 

• Difference Between the Address Book and a Contact List 

• The User Manager 

• About Importing Contact Data from a File 

• Do-Not-Call Lists 

• Message Suppression 

• About Cascade Calling 

SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide 1

The SchoolConnectsWeb Window 

The SchoolConnectsWeb window is divided into two parts: The Navigation pane on 

the left and the work area on the right. The work area on the right shows the contents 

of the option selected in the Navigation pane. No matter what window you are working 

on in the work area, you can click on an item in the Navigation pane to go immediately 

to a different function. 

NOTE: If you do this without first saving your changes, you may lose any changes you 

have been working on. 

2 

SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide

The Navigation Pane 

The Navigation pane looks like this: 

Home 

Use this option to return to the view you saw when you first logged in. 

Change School 

Available only to District users or administrators. Use this option to select a 

school or all schools to work with. After you make a selection, that selection is 

maintained until you make a new selection. 

Send Message 

Available only to users who have permissions to create a new message. Use this 

option to create a new announcement, emergency message, or attendance 

message, or to reuse a message. 

View Messages: Announcement 

Use this option to view all announcements in the system for the selected 

school(s) and date. To view announcements for a particular date, click the date 

in the calendar and click Announcement. 

View Messages: Emergency 


Use this option to view all emergency messages in the system for the selected 

school(s) and date. To view emergency messages for a particular date, click the 

date in the calendar and click Emergency. 

View Messages: Attendance 

Use this option to view all attendance messages in the system for the selected 

school(s) and date. To view attendance messages for a particular date, click the 

date in the calendar and click Attendance. 

View Messages: Call-In Profile 

Use this option to view all announcements launched by calling in to the system 

for the selected school(s) and date. To view call-in profile messages for a 

particular date, click the date in the calendar and click Call-In Profile. 

View Messages: All Messages 

Use this option to view all messages in the system for the selected school(s) and 

date. To view all messages for a particular date, click the appropriate date in the 

calendar and click All Messages. 

Reports 

Use this option to request a custom report or to view message history for a phone 

number or student ID. 

Settings 

Use this option to suppress messages, or work with message templates, school 

properties, restriction schedule, user accounts, or other system settings. 

Manage Contacts 

Use this option to work with the Address Book, contact lists, or Do-Not-Call 

lists. 

Need Help? 

Use this option to access videos, frequently-asked questions (FAQs), 

documentation, and the Remote Support Portal. 

4 


SchoolConnects Schools 

In SchoolConnects, the term school is just a label. A SchoolConnects school may 

represent an actual school, but it may also represent a virtual school. For example, in a 

district system, one school may be called “Staff” and may have an Address Book 

containing contact information for all staff members in the district. 

School properties 

Each school has its own properties. Each school can have its own Address Book and may 

have its own message templates, contact lists, and so on. 

The school code is the building code or location code for the school. This appears on any 

text files you import into the system. 

The name message is a recording of the school name. This recording is used in messages 

to identify the school that is calling. You can have this message recorded for you, 

keeping it in a consistent voice with the remainder of the message, or you can record 

your own message. 

The explanation message is used in attendance messages and is optional. It is used to 

allow each school to have a slightly different message. For example, a middle school 

may want to end an absence message with: 

“In future, please call our 24-hour attendance line and leave a message for the attendance 

secretary if you know the student will be absent that day.” 

But the high school may want to end an absence message with a much longer: 


“You must send a written note explaining the reason for the absence on the student’s 

return to school. Please be aware that no credit will be given for a course if the student has 

more than 6 unexplained absences for that course.” 

You can have this message recorded for you, keeping it in a consistent voice with the 

remainder of the message, or you can record your own message. 

6 


The Address Book 

The Address Book contains contact information for people associated with the school 

or school district. At the minimum, the Address Book contains an entry for each 

student in a school. Because the Address Book is used to contact groups of people 

associated with the school, it may also contain a record for each of the staff members in 

the school, or other groups such as bus drivers. 

The student information in the Address Book is imported from the student 

information system periodically, sometimes even daily, to ensure that student records 

are up to date. The file used to import the data is called an import file. Records for 

people other than students can be added manually, but are typically added via an 

import file also. 

Student records are frequently viewed by grade, but can be viewed by home room, 

language, teacher, or custom fields. Within these groupings, student records can be 

sorted by home room, teacher, name, language, student ID, or custom fields. These 

groupings are provided to make it easy for you to send a message to a particular group 

of students. For example, if you want to send a reminder notice to all Grade 9 students, 

you can easily select that group. 

You can also search for a particular record in the Address Book by typing your search 

criteria in the field provided.When you locate a student in the Address Book, you see 

the following: 

Note the single-person and two-person icons to the left of the student’s name. 


Clicking on the single-person icon allows you to see the student household contact 

data. Clicking on the two-person icon allows you to see any relative contact data 

defined for the student. 

The student household contact data 

The student household contact data contains the student properties, including name, 

ID, grade, home room, language, and other fields specific to the student. It also contains 

primary contact information (telephone and email), and secondary contact 

information, if applicable. It may also contain the household address, if used. It also 

includes two customizable fields available for use for fields such as bus route. 

The relative contact data 

8 


Each relative record can contain contact information for a parent, guardian, or other 

relative of the student. It also includes the name, relationship, and priority. 

For an explanation of each field in the Address Book, see "Address Book Fields and 

What They Mean". 

RELATED LINKS: 

Update the Address Book 

Create a Contact List 


Types of Messages 

SchoolConnects provides the following types of messages: 

• Attendance messages 

• Announcements 

• Emergency messages 

• Call-in profile messages 

Attendance messages notify parents when a student is absent for one or more periods 

or an entire day, or if a student is late. 

Announcements are generally messages sent to the entire school or a group of people. 

These messages may be ad-hoc, recorded in your own voice (or using the 

Text-to-Speech feature), or they may use one of many canned messages prepared for 

you that cover a variety of situations. 

Emergency messages are usually broadcast to the entire school population. These are 

usually messages that must be sent immediately, regardless of the time of day. An 

example is when the district notifies the community that a school is closed for the day 

due to severe weather. Emergency messages are sent with a higher priority than other 

announcements and may be routed to another calling system to be expedited. 

Call-in profile messages are messages that are launched from a telephone. The message 

is pre-configured so that the user only needs to record the message via the telephone 

before they launch the message. 

10 


Attendance Messages 

Attendance messages are those messages sent when a student is absent for one or more 

periods in a day or for an entire day, or when a student is late. The information used to 

send these messages comes from attendance records in the student information system. 

Attendance data is retrieved at least once a day from the student information system. 

Attendance messages are sent the day the student is absent at a predetermined time. 

An attendance message is specific to the student’s case: If the student misses a single 

period, the message indicates what period was missed. If the student is absent for an 

entire day, the message indicates that. 

The attendance message is highly customizable. The Default Period Absence message 

sounds something like the following. 

When played to a person: 

“ calling, please hold. This is a message from . A student 

in your household in grade named was absent in period . Please call the school at to provide an explanation. To listen to this message again, press 1." 

When played to a machine: 

“This is a message from . A student in your household in grade 

named was absent in period . Please call the school at to provide an explanation." 

The message is always placed twice to an answering machine, in case the first part of the 

message is cut off. 


Announcements 

An announcement is a message that you send to the general student population or to a 

distribution list. A typical announcement to the general population might be that 

report cards will be ready to be picked up on a particular date. A typical announcement 

to a distribution list might be to announce a change of time for the football practice. 

There are multiple ways to create an announcement. You can: 

• Record a message in your own voice. 

• Record a message by writing the message text and converting it to a speech file 

that uses a computer-generated voice. 

• Use a canned message, which is prerecorded in the same voice as the 

SchoolConnects attendance messages (in English only). 

• Send email messages whether or not you also deliver the messages by telephone. 

You can include email attachments that are exactly the same for every student, 

such as newsletters, forms, notices, and so on. You cannot email items such as 

Report cards, which are different for each student. 

Announcements are delivered within the times you specify, but not before 7:30 a.m. 

and not later than 9:00 p.m. If other messages are being sent to the same household, 

they are combined into one telephone call. You can use an announcement for any 

message you create yourself that does not need to go out outside of the regular 

announcement hours or does not need to take priority over all other calls. 

There are some special types of announcements: 

• Emergency announcements have a higher priority and a broader range of calling 

times. 

• Canned messages are announcements where the message is prerecorded for you. 

SchoolConnects comes with several stock (out of the box) messages. Some of 

these deliver customized messages to each of the recipients, such as the 

outstanding items message. 

NOTE: The Announcement option is available only to users who have permission to 

record messages. If you do not see Announcement in the Send Message window, you do 

not have permission. If you need this access, please contact your district administrator. 

About Emergency messages 

An Emergency message is a message that you record yourself and send to a group of 

recipients. Each Emergency message is unique and is usually used only once. A typical 

Emergency message might be that a particular bus route is delayed or cancelled. You 

use an Emergency message when it must go out immediately. If a message must be 

delivered outside normal calling times, you must also use Emergency. 

12 


NOTE: Emergency messages take priority over all other calls, so be careful when sending 

one. 

• Emergency messages are not combined with any other messages scheduled for 

delivery at the same time. 

• No other calls are delivered until the Emergency call delivery is complete. 

• Emergency priority calls can be delivered 24 hours a day. They are sent out at any 

hour of day or night if you set them to go out at those times. You can use the 

Emergency feature to send calls during prime-time hours, such as 6 p.m. to 9 

p.m. if you need your message to take priority over any other calls that may be set 

to deliver during this time. NOTE: Sending an Emergency call at the same time as 

Attendance calls may prevent the Attendance calls from being delivered. 

• By default, Emergency messages require the call recipient to press 2 to confirm 

receipt, otherwise the system calls back. You can disable this option. 

CAUTION: Do not use Emergency messages in a life or death situation: Dire situations 

should be handled directly by a person. 

The Emergency option is available only to users who have permission to send 

Emergency messages. If you do not see Emergency, you do not have permission. If you 

need this access, please contact your district administrator. 

About canned messages 

A canned message is an announcement created in a prerecorded voice. Stock messages 

come with the SchoolConnects system. In addition, you may have some custom canned 

messages created for you. A canned message is recorded in the same voice as 

attendance messages, in English only. A canned message allows you to quickly send a 

message to any group of people without recording anything. 

Canned messages are delivered within the times you specify, but not before 7:30 a.m. 

and not later than 9:00 p.m. If other messages are sent to the same household, they are 

combined into one telephone call. 

Canned messages allow you to assemble a message from rerecorded phrases. When 

creating an announcement from a canned message, you choose from the list of Stock 

messages available. For some messages, you select values for variables, such as dollar 

amounts, dates, and times when you create the message. For some Stock messages, you 

use an import file (such as a spreadsheet or text file) that contains a list of students and 

their associated dollar amounts (such as outstanding lunch balances). 

If you need a canned message that does not yet exist, you can request one from your 

Synrevoice representative. It is created for you as part of our service. 


Call-In Profile Messages 

You can call in to SchoolConnects to send messages when you do not have access to a 

computer. You may want to send a message in this manner if you need to send an 

early-morning message regarding a school closure due to inclement weather. You want 

this kind of message to go out before you arrive at the school or district office. Another 

example would be if the football coach wants to notify parents that the team will be 45 

minutes later arriving home than scheduled. 

You can send this type of message provided you have a numeric user ID (so you can 

enter the user ID and password from a telephone keypad) and provided that you first 

create a profile for the message you want to send. 

Calls always start today, at the time specified in the profile. 

Call-in profiles 

Call-in profiles are used to define the details of an announcement so that you only need 

to record the actual message when you call in to the system. The call-in profile defines 

the telephone numbers to be called and the hours at which the calls can be sent. 

Let us suppose that the Vice Principal has a call-in profile with a contact list of school 

staff plus the school Address Book. The Vice Principal can launch a message from 

anywhere to both staff and students at the same time. You can also create a call-in 

profile for all schools and all staff, one just for all grade 9 students in the district, and so 

on. There is no limit to the number of call-in profiles you can create. 

A call-in profile must be assigned to at least one user, but it can be assigned to more 

than one. Each call-in profile user must have a numeric user ID and numeric password 

to launch calls this way. This enables the users to log in from a telephone. 

A user ID with permission to launch a call-in message does not require any other 

permissions in SchoolConnects. Even if every permission is set to No, the user can 

launch calls by calling in. However, to not require separate accounts for using 

SchoolConnectsWeb and for launching calls by telephone, you may just want to 

provide all users with a single numeric user ID and password. 

Call-in profile reference card 

For each call-in profile, SchoolConnects automatically generates a reference card that 

you can print for the people using the call-in profile to keep in their wallets. The 

reference card should include the telephone number to call, the user ID and the profile 

ID. The same user account can have multiple call-in profiles. For example, the music 

director could have a call-in profile containing all music students, one for senior band, 

one for choir, and so on. If one user has several call-in profiles, it is recommended that 

14 


you combine all instructions for one user into one reference card that includes all 

call-in profiles available to that user. 

Example: the football coach 

1) Create a call-in profile for the football coach. Select only the contact list called 

“Football team”. 

2) When the football team goes to another town on Saturday for a game, the coach 

can use a pay telephone, cell phone, or any other telephone to call in to the 

system, log in and enter the call-in profile ID, and record a message saying the 

team arrived safely. The message is sent immediately, no matter what time of day 

or night. 

3) When the team is on the way home, and the coach can reasonably estimate their 

arrival time at the school, he can call in again, use the same login and call-in 

profile ID, and record another message giving parents the estimated arrival time 

so they can be at the school to pick up their kids. 

The superintendent 

1) In a district system, create a user account for the superintendent. 

2) Create a call-in profile that includes all schools and all Address Books, using the 

Default Announcement Settings, with several days to complete the calls. 

3) Name the call-in profile “All Schools Announcement” 

4) When the superintendent wants to send an announcement to all households in 

the district, he or she simply calls in to the system at his or her convenience, 

enters the All Schools call-in profile ID, and records the message. 

All grade 9 students in the district 

1) Create a call-in profile where all school Address Books in the district are selected, 

but select the Grade 9 subset. 

2) Name the call-in profile “All Grade Nines in the District”. 

3) When you need to send a message about something that affects all ninth-grade 

students, call in, enter the profile ID and record your message. 


About Message Expiry 

When you create an announcement, you specify a date and time when the message is 

to start going out. You also set a date for the message to expire. You either set this 

explicitly, or you use the default expiry date from your template. 

The expiry date is the date at which the system stops trying to deliver the message. The 

expiry date may occur after the system has completed making all calls, it may occur 

while the system is still trying to contact people who did not answer their telephones on 

the first try, or it may occur after only some of the people have been contacted. 

Ideally, the expiry date is set to a value that makes sense for the system you are using: If 

you are using SchoolConnects on a hosted service, it may take only a couple of hours 

to reach everyone in your school or district. If you are using SchoolConnects on a local 

system with only a few telephone lines, it may take multiple days to reach everyone. You 

need to consider how many calls you are making and how you are making them when 

setting the expiry date for a message. 

You also need to consider what makes sense for the expiry date. For example, if you are 

sending an early morning message announcing a school closure due to inclement 

weather, it usually does not make sense to send the message over 2 or 3 days. 

Regardless of the circumstances, if the system is still calling when the expiry date 

arrives, it stops calling that message. 

When calling over two or more days, the system does not repeat calls to the same 

telephone number once the message is delivered to that telephone number. 

When a message expires, its status is set to Expired. 


Create an Announcement With Your Own Message 

Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message 

Choose Recipients from the Address Book 

Choose Recipients from a Contact List 

16 


About Call Times 

When you create a message to be delivered by telephone, you specify the call times: The 

time to start calling, and the time to stop calling. 

Usually, these times are set in the template you are using, and you may not need to 

change the times. However, it is important to check what they are, especially if you are 

sending out a message on or near a weekend. 

There are two sets of call times for a message: 

• Weekday call times 

• Weekend call times 

The weekday call times identify the period of time Monday through Friday that you 

determine is the optimal time to call parents. This time period varies depending on the 

urgency of the message. If this is an announcement, and it is not critical to contact a 

person directly (e.g. it is reasonable to leave a message on an answering machine), you 

could choose to start calling at noon, and stop calling at 9 p.m. If this is an emergency 

notification about a school closure, you may want to start calling at 6:30 a.m. to ensure 

everyone gets the message before leaving for school. 

If the message delivery dates span both weekdays and weekends, both sets of call times 

are used. For example, if you send a message on a Friday morning, and the message is 

set to expire four days later, any calls made on the second day are made during the 

weekend call times. If those values are not set in the template, it is possible to send a 

message very early on a Saturday morning, without really intending to do so. 







About Email Times 

When you create a message to be delivered by email, you specify the email times: The 

time to start sending emails, and the time to stop sending them if they have not all been 

sent. 

Usually, these times are set in the template you are using, and you may not need to 

change the times. Because emails are not as disruptive as telephone calls, it is not as 

critical to control when the emails are sent. However, if you are sending emails with 

attachments, you need to ensure you allow sufficient time to send them. If you are 

sending out a message on or near a weekend, you should review the times allotted for 

sending the message. 

There are two sets of email times for a message: 

• Weekday email times 

• Weekend email times 

The weekday email times identify the period of time Monday through Friday that you 

determine is the optimal time to email parents. 

The weekend email times identify the period of time Saturday and Sunday that you 

determine is the optimal time to email parents on the weekend. 

NOTE: Weekend times do not apply on holidays associated with a long weekend: A 

holiday Monday, for example, is viewed by the system as a weekday. 

If the message delivery dates span both weekdays and weekends, both sets of email 

times are used. For example, if you send a message on a Friday morning, and the 

message is set to expire four days later, any emails sent on the second day are sent using 

weekend call times. 






18 


About Message Priority 

Message priority determines the order in which messages are delivered. 

The following priorities are available: 

• Low 

• Medium 

• High 

• Emergency 

Low priority does not mean your message is unimportant. It simply means that other 

messages may take priority over this message. This is the default priority for an 

Announcement. 

Medium priority is seldom used. 

High priority is the highest priority available to a user who does not have Emergency 

permission. Attendance messages are usually high priority because it is important for 

them to be delivered in a single day. A high-priority message preempts a low-priority 

message. If multiple messages are combined, generally the higher priority message is 

delivered before the lower-priority message. 

Emergency priority is the highest priority available on the system. When you create an 

Emergency message, the priority is automatically set to Emergency, which cannot be 

changed. An emergency-priority message takes over the system until all of the 

Emergency calls are made. Emergency-priority calls are not combined with other calls. 

If you are using the SchoolConnects hosted service, emergency-priority messages that 

cannot complete in half an hour due to high system usage are routed to a separate 

overflow system to provide additional calling capacity. 

Message templates have a default priority set, which is usually appropriate for the type 

of message. For example, an announcement is generally a low-priority message, 

whereas an emergency message is generally a high-priority message. It is important to 

use the appropriate priority. 


When to use what priority 

Use this priority ... When .. 

Low • You are sending an announcement 

regarding an upcoming event 

• You are sending an announcement 

regarding an event that is happening 

today, and you are sending the message in 

the middle of the day when system usage 

is normally low (you do not want this 

message to potentially compete with a 

real emergency) 

High • You are sending attendance messages 

• You are sending a message that must be 

delivered today, but it can be sent during 

regular calling times e.g. early afternoon 

Emergency • You are sending a message that must go 

out outside the regular calling times e.g. 

before 7:30 a.m. 

• You are sending a message that must 

preempt any other messages 

• Do not use Emergency for a test call 






20 


Contact Lists 

Do you have a group of people to whom you want to send messages on a regular basis, 

such as the Parent-Teacher Council, football team, or drama club participants? 

SchoolConnects helps you create contact lists of these groups to make it easy to send 

them messages. 

A contact list does not typically store student data if it includes students: It is actually a 

list of pointers to the Address Book. This allows you to keep your contact information 

in a contact list current, since the data in the Address Book is usually updated 

periodically. 

When you want to include people in a contact list that do not exist in your Address 

Book (for example, you want to include a parent volunteer in a list), you can add that 

person manually to the contact list. Be aware, though, that any time their contact 

information changes, you must manually edit their information in the contact list. 





Difference Between the Address Book and a Contact List 

It is helpful to understand the difference between the Address Book and a contact list, 

so you know when to select each one for sending messages. 

Address Book 

The Address Book usually contains a list of the student population, and is populated 

from a student information system. Most Address Books are organized by grade, and 

each student in the Address Book has a unique student ID. 

The Address Book is updated periodically. In many cases, it is updated automatically 

on a nightly basis. Therefore, all student information is up to date in the Address Book. 

The list of students in the Address Book changes as frequently as the Address Book is 

updated. Contact information for students may be updated in the student information 

system on an ongoing basis. Each time the Address Book is updated, changed student 

information is updated, new students are added, and students who have left the school 

are removed from the Address Book. 

When you want to send a message to the entire student population, or to a subset of the 

population, such as the grade 9s, you use the Address Book. 

Contact list 

A contact list is a fixed, finite list of contacts. A contact list may be a list of students, or 

it may be a list of staff, parent volunteers, coaches, bus drivers, and so on. A contact list 

may also comprise both students, staff, and parent volunteers. 

There are several ways to create contact lists: 

• Contact lists can be created by importing data from files or spreadsheets, where 

someone has compiled a list of people and their telephone numbers. 

• When all members of the contact list are members of the student population, the 

contact list may be created by selecting students from the Address Book. This 

contact list consists of pointers to the contact information in the Address Book. 

No telephone numbers are actually stored within the contact list itself. This 

ensures that the contact information in the contact list is kept up to date. 

• A contact list may be created by entering records manually, one at a time. You 

can also use this technique to add individuals to a contact list. However, if the 

individual is in the Address Book, it is better to add them to the list using the 

Address Book as the source. 

22 


When you want to send multiple messages to a group of people not part of the student 

population, or to a sports team or participants in an after-school activity such as this 

year’s school play, you use a contact list to do so. 





The User Manager 

You use the User Manager to work with SchoolConnects user accounts. You access the 

User Manager by clicking Settings and then clicking Manage User Accounts. 

Typically, there are functions that are performed at the district level and functions that 

are performed at the school level. For example, in some districts, attendance messages 

are handled by the district and all other announcements are handled by individual 

schools. 

SchoolConnects provides permissions for most system objects and functions. These 

permissions determine what functions a user can perform. 

User types 

There are four types of SchoolConnects user accounts: 

• District administrator—The District administrator has full rights to everything 

including System Settings, can create schools and can create users for any school. 

• School administrator—The School administrator has full rights only to his or her 

school and can create School users. 

• District user—A District user can send high-priority messages, update the 

Address Book, and create contact lists. A District user cannot create other users 

or schools. 

• School user—A School user can, by default, send low-priority messages, update 

the Address Book, and create contact lists. A School user should have 

permissions to import a file, but can be given permission to as many functions as 

the School administrator allows. 

User properties 

User properties include the full name of the user, the user’s password, the type of user 

account, the user’s email address if they are to receive reports, and their permissions. 

Each user has permissions assigned to them. These permissions determine what 

functions the user can perform. Each user type has a default set of permissions 

associated with it. However, the defaults can be overridden when the user is created. By 

default, a District administrator has permission to everything and a school user has the 

least permission. 

24 


District administrators 

When you log in as a District administrator, you have access to certain functions that 

are not available to a School administrator or School user. These include the ability to: 

• Create new schools or modify school properties. 

• Create district-level users. 

• Add telephone numbers or student ID numbers to a global Do-Not-Call list. 

These telephone numbers are excluded from all calls made, system wide. (School 

users can add telephone numbers or student ID numbers to the Do-Not-Call list 

for their own school; these telephone numbers are not excluded from calls made 

for other schools.) 


About Importing Contact Data from a File 

You can import contact data, such as student information exported from your student 

information system, staff contact information from a spreadsheet, parent volunteer 

information from a text file, and so on. These data can be imported into 

SchoolConnects into your Address Book, or as a contact list, or simply as a one-time 

import to send a message. 

SchoolConnects supports importing data from the following kinds of files: 

• Excel spreadsheets (2003, XP, 2000, 97 or 95) 

• Comma-separated (.csv) files with one record per line 

• Formatted text files 

Before contact data can be imported from any file, you need to tell SchoolConnects how 

to interpret the file. This is done by creating a file specification. The file specification 

maps each position in your import file to a field in the Address Book, or equivalent 

fields in a contact list. 


Create a File Specification 

Obtain Recipients from an Import File 


26 


Do-Not-Call Lists 

A Do-Not-Call list is a list of telephone numbers and students you do not want the 

system to call. For example, you may want to add students who are over 18, students 

who have been suspended or expelled but the paperwork has not yet gone through so 

they still appear to have unauthorized absences, or other students in special 

circumstances. 

The Do-Not-Call list can also contain telephone numbers of households or businesses 

that received calls in error. This prevents SchoolConnects from calling those numbers 

again. 

There are two types of Do-Not-Call lists: 

• A global list, for the entire district 

• School lists 

Global Do-Not-Call list 

The global list contains numbers that SchoolConnects should never call, such as 911 or 

the operator. It can also contain numbers of households with students in multiple 

schools, that do not want to be contacted by any school in the district. 

NOTE: If you specify a student ID in the global list, no telephone calls are made to that 

student’s telephone number from any school in the district. To prevent calls about an 

individual student, enter the student ID in the school’s Do-Not-Call list. 

School’s Do-Not-Call list 

A Do-Not-Call list for a school is used to prevent calls regarding individual students, or 

to individual households, and should be updated annually. 


Message Suppression 

The administrator may not want messages sent on a particular day, perhaps just 

because the attendance secretary is away or perhaps because of traumatic events such 

as the death of a student, a bomb threat, terrible accident, and so on. A restriction 

schedule allows the administrator to quickly specify the dates and types of messages that 

they want to suppress. 

NOTE: If attendance messages are sent out automatically, a notification restriction is the 

recommended way to stop sending attendance messages on a particular day. 

The Restriction schedule allows you to do the following: 

• Stop current or future messages from being sent 

• Specify a start and end date to stop current or future messages from being sent 

• Choose to block just calls, just emails, or both for the duration specified 

• Choose to suppress just Attendance messages, just announcements, just 

Emergency messages, or any combination 

The system only restricts messages during the period between the Restriction Start Date 

and End Date. 

Whether you create a restriction schedule before you create a message, or create a 

message before creating the restriction schedule, the system restricts the message. 

Types of messages that are restricted 

When you create a restriction schedule, you select the types of messages to restrict. You 

can select one type of message, or multiple types of messages. 

If you select ... The behavior is ... 

Attendance Message 

Announcement 

Emergency Message 

Call Only 

Email Only 

The system restricts only the Attendance 

messages but does not restrict any 

announcements or Emergency messages. 

The system restricts announcements. 

The system restricts only Emergency 

messages. 

The system restricts only telephone calls. 

Emails are still sent. 

The system restricts only emails. Calls are 

still sent. 

28 


If you select ... The behavior is ... 

Call and Email 

The system restricts both calls and emails. 


About Cascade Calling 

When setting up any message, you can deliver the message to all selected telephone 

numbers, or you can cascade the contacts. Cascade calling allows you to try multiple 

numbers for a student, but stop calling when the message is delivered to a person, or all 

highest priority contacts (priority 01). 

Without cascade calling, it is possible to call many numbers per student, and parents 

can receive the same message on several different telephones. 

With cascade calling, SchoolConnects calls all priority 01 numbers, but stops calling 

when all priority 01 contacts have been reached, or the allocated calling time expires, 

whichever happens first. 

Contact priorities 

To use cascade calling most effectively, it is important to understand how contact 

priorities work. You can assign priorities from 01 to 99 to all contacts in the Address 

Book, where 01 is the highest priority, and 99 is the lowest. 

The student household record in the Address Book is always considered priority 01. 

This record contains a primary telephone number (home) and up to two secondary 

telephone numbers (mobile and alternate). 

Each student can have multiple contacts (relatives). Each relative can have up to three 

telephone numbers. You can assign priorities to contacts, either individually, record by 

record, or globally based on the relative code. 

How cascade calling works 

When you choose cascade calling, SchoolConnects delivers the message to all contacts 

marked with priority 01. In addition, SchoolConnects also attempts to call all selected 

numbers marked priority 02 - 99 until it delivers the message to a number. When the 

call is delivered to any telephone number, any additional priority 02 - 99 numbers are 

marked Cascade Completed. No further attempts are made to contact non-priority 01 

numbers. However, SchoolConnects continues to call priority 01 contacts until the 

message is delivered to all of them. 

A message is considered delivered when ... 

When you use cascade calling, you also decide when the message is to be considered 

delivered. Delivered can mean delivered to a person or answering machine, or you can 

require that the recipient press a key to confirm receipt of the message to confirm that 

it was delivered. If you call the student home number and leave a message on the 

answering machine, is that sufficient for your purposes? If not, do you want the system 

30 


to keep calling other numbers until someone actually presses a key to verify that they 

received the call? 

If the message is not delivered ... 

If the message is not considered delivered by the criteria you set, should 

SchoolConnects continue trying to call that number? 

SchoolConnects first tries all the other numbers for a student. But if SchoolConnects 

delivered the message to a machine, you need to decide if you want it to retry the 

number if it has not successfully reached a person at the other telephone numbers. 

If you do choose to have SchoolConnects retry numbers where nobody pressed a key 

to confirm receipt, you must specify the number of times it should try to call and the 

number of minutes to wait between retries. 






The Cascade Calling Feature 


32 


Using SchoolConnectsWeb 

This section contains instructions for most of the procedures you perform periodically 

in SchoolConnects. 

Contents: 

• Create a School 

• Edit School Properties 

• Change Your Password 

• Add a New User 

• Delete an Existing User Account 

• Create an Announcement With Your Own Message 

• Choose Recipients from the Address Book 

• Choose Recipients from a Contact List 

• Obtain Recipients from an Import File 

• Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message 

• Work with Messages 

• Send a Message Again 

• Create a Reusable Message 

• Reuse a Message 

• Create a Quick Attendance Message 

• Create a Contact List 

• Modify a Contact List 

• Update the Address Book 

• Prevent Calls to a Student or Phone Number 

• Restrict Messaging for a School or District 


Create a School 

BEFORE STARTING THIS TASK: 

You must be logged in to SchoolConnects as a District administrator to perform this 

procedure. 

STEPS 

1. Ensure all schools are selected. If not, in the Navigation pane, click Change 

School. From the list of schools in the work space, select All Schools. 

2. In the Navigation pane, click Settings. 

3. Expand Manage School Properties and click School Properties. 

The list of schools appears. 

4. Click New. The Add School window appears. 

34 


5. On the General tab, fill in the School Code and School Name fields. 

School Code is the building code or location code that appears on any text files 

you import into the system. After you create a school, you cannot change the 

school code, so be careful to use the correct code. 

6. Ensure you have a recording for Name Message. 

You can have this message recorded for you, keeping it in a consistent voice 

with the remainder of the message, or you can record your own message, 

either in your own voice, or using Text to Speech. 

The Name message is used to identify the school that is calling, and is typically 

played at the beginning of a message. 

7. Optional: Obtain a recording for Explanation Message. 

You can have this message recorded for you, keeping it in a consistent voice 

with the remainder of the message, or you can record your own message, in 

your own voice, or using Text to Speech. 

The Explanation message is sometimes used in attendance messages to allow 

each school to have a slightly different message. 

8. In the Email To field, enter the email addresses of school administrators who 

are to receive Notification Task reports. You can enter multiple email 

addresses separated by a semi-colon. 

9. In the Phone Number field, enter the main school telephone number. This 

number may be referred to in telephone and email messages sent to parents. 

10. Click Save. 


Edit School Properties 

School properties contain the information about the school that is used in messages, 

such as the recording of the school name, and how parents are to provide an 

explanation for their child’s absence. The school properties also include the email 

address where copies of school reports are sent, and the telephone number to display 

for the caller ID when calls go out. These values are typically set by the District 

administrator. 

STEPS 

1. To modify any information for a school, in the Navigation pane, click Settings. 

2. Hover over Manage School Properties and click School Properties. 

The list of schools appears. 

3. Click on the School icon next to the school you want to modify. 

The Edit School Properties window appears. 

4. You can record a new Name Message or Explanation Message, change the 

email addresses configured, or edit the contact information. You cannot 

change the school code. 

5. Click Save to save your changes. 

36 


Change Your Password 

STEPS 


2. Hover over Manage User Accounts and click Users and Administrators. 

The User Manager window for your school appears. 

3. Expand the list of users in the school by clicking the plus (+) sign next to the 

school name. 

4. Click on the person icon beside your own user account. 

The Edit User Properties window appears. 

5. In the Password field, type the new password. 


6. In the Confirm Password field, type the new password again. 


38 


Add a New User 

If you are a School administrator, you can create a new user account for your school. If 

you are a District administrator, you can create a new user account for any school. 

STEPS 

1. On the Navigation pane, click Settings. 



3. Click New. 

The Create a new user account and assign permissions window appears. 


4. Fill in the user ID, name, and password, and select the user type from the 

drop-down list. 

School administrators and School users must be assigned to a school. 

NOTE: You can only assign one school per user. 

5. In the Email Address to Send Reports To field, if this user should message 

status reports, enter the user’s email address. If the user has the appropriate 

permissions, the user automatically receives reports for all messages. 

6. Click the Permissions tab to assign permissions to this user. 

You can define the types of objects users can access and change. You can also 

choose which types of reports the user should receive. 


40 


Delete an Existing User Account 

If you are a School administrator, you can delete users that have been set up for your 

school. Be careful not to delete all users. 

STEPS 

1. On the Navigation pane, click Settings. 



3. Expand the list of users for the school by clicking the plus (+) sign next to the 

school name. 

4. Select the user you want to delete by checking the box next to the user ID. 

5. Click Delete. 



When you create an announcement, you have the option to create your own message 

for the announcement or to use an existing canned or pre-recorded message. If none of 

the canned messages meets your needs, or if you are creating a unique, one-time 

message, create your own message. 

STEPS 

1. In the Navigation pane, click Send Message. 

The Send a Message window appears. 

42 


2. Click Announcement: Create Your Own Message. 

The Create Announcement Wizard begins. 







Step 1: Identify the message 

STEPS 

1. Select the school to send the message to. 

If you are logged in as a school user, your school is selected automatically. 

If you are logged in as a district user, you can select a single school, or you can 

select all schools in the district. 

NOTE: If you selected a school to work with before creating this message, that 

school is selected for sending this message. If you want to send the message to the 


STEPS 

1. Select the type of message you want to send: Call, email, or both call and 

email. 

To send emails to parents who have email addresses, and only call those 

parents who do not have an email address, or vice versa, click More to see 

additional options. 

2. Usually, you leave the priority at the default for this type of message. 

3. Select the date you want the message to start going out. The default is the 

date selected on the calendar, which is today’s date, unless you previously 

selected a different date. 

4. Select the date you want the message to expire if it has not been delivered to 

all recipients. In most cases, you can just leave the default date. Make sure you 

allow enough time for all of the calls to be made. 

5. If you are calling, specify the time you want the calls to start. Otherwise, skip 

to Step 7. If your calls will continue into the weekend, be sure to specify 

weekend start times also. 

TIP: If your call is to go out immediately, you may want to allow yourself an extra 

15 minutes to double-check your message or to make last-minute changes. 

6. Specify the time you want the calls to stop for the night, even if the calls have 

not been completed. 

Generally, your template limits calling times to those deemed reasonable for 

this type of message. 

If the calls have not completed when the stop time arrives, the system starts 

calling the next day during the call times specified for that day, if you allowed 

additional days for calling. 

NOTE: If you specified multiple days to allow the calls to complete, and it is possible 

that calls will continue over the weekend, be sure to specify the weekend calling 

times. You do not want to be calling parents early on a weekend morning. 

7. If you are sending emails, specify the time you want the emails to start and 

end. 

8. Click Next. If you are calling, the Recording Center appears. If you are not 

calling, the Create Message window appears. 

Step 3A: Record the message 

If this message is not being delivered by telephone, skip this topic. 


There are two ways to record the message: 

• Record the message in your own voice: You do this by having the system call you, 

and record the message over the telephone. 

• Generate the recording: Write the message in text, and use the Text-to-Speech 

feature to convert the text into a recording (available only when Text to Speech 

is enabled). 

Record a message in your own voice 

STEPS 

1. Select the language for your recording. 

If you are recording in English, you do not need to do anything. 

If you are recording in a language other than English, you must tell the system 

what language it is, so it can send the message to the appropriate recipients. 

If you are recording the message in Spanish, for example, in the Record 

message in drop down, select Spanish. 

46 


2. Write the text for your message in the text box provided. 

This text acts as a script for you to follow when you are recording your 

message. It also acts as a reminder of what was recorded for future purposes. 

If you are also sending an email, it is the basis of the email content. 

3. When you are ready to record the message, click Record. The Easy Message - 

Make Call window appears. 

4. Enter the information the system requires to call you so you can record your 

message. 

If you are using a locally-installed system, you may need to enter a 9 to get an 

outside line and then the telephone number where you can be reached. 

If you are using the SchoolConnects hosted service, you must enter the area 

code + the 7-digit number of the telephone at your location. 

Do one of the following: 

• If you want the system to call your cell phone, enter the cell phone 

number and select Direct connection. 

• If you answer the incoming calls to your building yourself, enter your 

building’s main number and select Direct connection. 

• If a human receptionist answers incoming calls to your building, enter 

your building’s main number, select Live attendant, and type in the 

extension of the telephone beside you. 

• If you have an automated voice mail system in your school, select Auto 

attendant and type in the extension of the telephone beside you. 

5. Click Call Me. SchoolConnects calls you at the telephone number you 

entered. When it rings, answer the telephone. When someone answers the 

telephone, you see a “Connected” message. 

6. When you receive the call, click Verify so SchoolConnects can verify that it 

really called you and not somebody else by mistake. 

7. Click Record and record your message after the tone. 

8. When you have finished recording, click Stop to end the recording. Do not 

hang up. 

Click Play to hear what you just recorded, or Record to re-record your 

message. When you are satisfied with your recording, click Hang Up and then 

hang up the telephone. 

9. Click Save Text to save a copy of the message text. The recording is saved 

automatically. 

10. Click Continue to close this window. 

Generate a message using Text to Speech 

If your system has the Text-to-Speech feature enabled, you can create your own 

messages by writing the text and converting it to a recording. 


STEPS 

1. Select the language for your recording. 

If you are creating an English recording, you do not need to do anything. 

If you are creating a recording in a language other than English, you must tell 

the system what language it is, so it can send the message to the appropriate 

recipients. 

If you are creating a Spanish recording, for example, in the Record message 

in drop down, select Spanish. 

2. Write the text for your message in the text box provided. This is the text that 

will be used to create the message. 

3. Do one of the following: 

• If you are recording in a language other than English and need to select 

a non-English voice, or if you want to change the speed or volume 

settings for your recording, hover your mouse over Generate Recording 

From Text, then click Review Settings First. 

Select the voice you want from the Voice Selection drop down. 

IMPORTANT: Ensure the voice you select supports the language you require 

for your recording. For example, if you are creating a Spanish recording, you 

must select a Spanish voice. 

Optional: Adjust volume and speed settings if required. 

TIP: Usually, you adjust these settings only after you listen to your recording 

at least once. 

Click Generate Recording. 

• If you do not need to change any of the recording options, hover your 

mouse over Generate Recording From Text, then click Generate 

Recording. 

An audio version of the message is created, and the message text is saved. 

4. Listen to your message in one of the following ways: 

• If your computer has speakers, you can preview the recording directly 

by checking Use speaker to play back, and clicking Play. 

• If your computer does not have speakers, you can listen to the recording 

over the telephone by having the system call you. Click Play, connect to 

the system as usual, and listen to the message. When you have listened 

to the message, hang up. 

5. Click Continue to close the Recording Center window. 

48 


Step 3B: Create the email contents 

STEPS 

1. If you are calling, and have not yet recorded the message, click Record 

Message. 

2. If you are calling, and need to change the recorded message, click Modify 

Message. 

3. If you are sending emails, enter the email subject in the Subject field. 

Otherwise, click Next and continue in the wizard. 

If you are sending both calls and emails, and you entered the message text in 

the Recording Center, the message text is automatically copied to the email 

contents for you. 

4. Ensure the email contents are complete. If you are sending student-specific 

information in the email, use email substitution tags as required. 

5. Optional: To include an attachment, click Add, then Browse to the file you 

want to include. Double-click on the file, or select it and click Open. When you 


have attached the file, click Upload. You can now see the attachment has 

been added. To add more attachments, repeat this process. 

NOTE: Email attachments are limited to certain file types, such as PDF. There are 

also limits to the size of the email. Do not exceed 2MB or some parents may not be 

able to receive the email. 

6. When you are happy with the message, click Next. 

Step 4: Specify who to send the message to 

You can send messages to the entire student population from the SchoolConnects 

Address Book, or to part of the student population, such as a particular grade. You can 

send a message to one or more contact lists, or to both the student population and a 

contact list such as Staff. You can send a message to everyone whose student ID appears 

in a file, referred to as an import file. Which of these options you choose depends on 

your needs. 

STEPS 

1. In Choose recipients from, specify where your list of message recipients 

comes from. If you want to send the message to the student population, select 

the Address Book. If you want to send the message to your staff, most likely 

you will use a contact list for staff. (Some schools include a grade for staff in 

their Address Book.) If you want to send the message to students who have 

50 


not yet paid for a class trip, most likely you will use an import file, which 

contains the amount outstanding for each student. 

• If you want to send the message to the student population, select 

Address Book. 

• If you want to send the message to your staff, most likely you need to 

select Contact list. 

• If you want to send the message to students who owe money for a class 

trip, and include the amount owing, select Import file. 

• If you want to send the message to all Grade 3 students and teachers, 

most likely you need to select Address Book and contact list. The 

student names come from the Address Book and the staff from a 

contact list. 

2. Choose the recipients you want to contact from the appropriate source: 

• If you chose Import file as the source for your list of recipients, skip to the 

next step. 

• If you chose the Address Book as a source for your list of recipients, in 

the Select recipients box, click Address Book, and specify the criteria to 

select your recipients. 

• If you chose Contact list as a source for your list of recipients, in the 

Select recipients box, click Contact List, and specify the criteria to select 

your recipients. 

3. Optional: If you want to call multiple contacts for each student, to ensure 

delivery of the message, under Optional Settings, click Cascade calling. Then, 

in the box that appears, select the delivery options, and number of retries. 

4. Optional: If you need to call relative numbers or student secondary numbers, 

click Additional contact options, and check the desired options. 

5. Click Next. 


Step 5: Review the Summary 

The Summary page is usually the last page that you see when creating a new message. 

This page provides a last opportunity for you to review the details of your message 

before it is created. 

The left-most column contains check marks for steps that are complete, and Xs for 

steps that may not be complete. 

NOTE: The summary may continue beyond what you can see. Use the scroll bar to view 

all of the information. 

STEPS 

1. Scan the left-most column of the Summary page, looking for any items that do 

not have check marks. 

NOTE: An X does not necessarily mean a problem. For example, if you are sending 

your message via email, but do not have an attachment to include, you see a red 

X next to Email Attachment. Provided you did not intend to include an 

attachment, this is not a problem. 

2. Review the call and email times to be sure they are what you want. 

NOTE: Be sure to check both weekday and weekend times if your call spans both. 

For example, if you are sending a message on a Friday that may not complete 

52 


efore Saturday, be sure your calling times are not too early for the weekend 

settings. 

3. Review the phone number source and email source to ensure they are correct. 

4. If you chose recipients from the Address Book, you can see the criteria used to 

select the students. You can also see how many students were selected. 

Quickly review the numbers. If they do not look reasonable, double-check 

your selections. 

5. If you chose recipients from contact lists, you can see the contact lists selected. 

Review the list and ensure it is correct. 

6. If you need to make changes, either click Previous to return to the correct 

step, or click the step number at the top of the page. When you are satisfied 

with your message, click Finish. 

If you selected to import recipients in an import file, the next window you see 

takes you through the process of specifying your import file. 



You can send messages to the entire student population or a subset of the student 

population using the Address Book. Because the Address Book often contains 

information about students such as their grade, teacher, home room, and so on, you 

can send messages by grade, teacher, home room, and so on. 







Select the entire Address Book 

STEPS 

1. If you see a list of schools, select the school or schools you want to send the 

message to. If you are logged in as a district user, you can select multiple 

schools or All Schools to send the message to the entire district. If you are 

logged in as a school user, your school is selected for you. 

2. Click Continue. All students in the selected schools are selected to receive the 

message. 

Select all members of a grade 

STEPS 





2. Click Select Subset or Individuals. The Select individual contacts window 

appears. 

3. Leave the default at Select a subset by Grade, Home Room or other 

category and check the grade or grades you want to send the message to. 

NOTE: Although you can select multiple categories, do so with caution. Selecting 

multiple categories means that only the students included in all of the categories 

are selected. Sometimes selecting multiple categories may result in no students 

being selected. 

If you selected multiple schools, all students in the selected grades in the 

selected schools receive the message. 

54 


4. Click Continue. 

All students in the grade or other category you checked are selected to receive 

the message. 

Select individuals 

STEPS 





2. Check Select Subset or Individuals. The Select individual contacts window 

appears. 

3. Choose Select individuals. 

4. Use the List By, Sort By, or Search By fields to select the criteria to locate and 

display the students you want to send the message to. 

5. Click Show Results to display the students based on the specified criteria. 

6. Check the box to the left of each student you want to send the message to. 

7. Repeat steps 4 through 6 until you have selected all of the students you want 

to send the message to. 


The students you checked are selected to receive the message. 



You can create a contact list for a group of people you need to contact more than once 

a year. The contacts in a contact list may be students, or they may be non-students, or 

a combination. For example, you could have a contact list that includes all students in 

the school play, plus the staff involved with the play, and the parent volunteers. 

You can choose multiple contact lists when sending a message. You can also choose a 

subset of a contact list, such as all of the Grade 9s in the school play. You can also choose 

a subset of multiple contact lists, such as all of the Grade 10 students that play on all 

sports teams. 







Select an entire contact list 

STEPS 

1. Select (check) the contact list you want to call. 

To see the list of contacts you have selected, you can click View Selected. 


Select a subset grouping from a contact list 

STEPS 

1. Select (check) the contact lists you want to subset. 

2. Check Select Subset or Individuals. 

3. If you are selecting contacts by a group such as Grade, check Select 

individuals by Grade, Home Room or other category. 

4. Select (check) the group you want to send the message to. 

To view the list of contacts selected, click View Selected. 


56 


Select individuals from a contact list 

STEPS 

1. Check the contact lists you want to subset. 

2. Check Select Subset or Individuals. 

3. Leave the default at Select individuals. 

4. If you are selecting from multiple contact lists, select the contact lists you want 

to work with. 

5. Use the List By or Search By fields to specify the criteria to display the 

contacts in such a way that you can locate those people you want to contact. 

For example, if you know the people you want to contact are all in a particular 

grade, leave the defaults and locate these people by grade. If you are going to 

locate these people by name, use the Search By field, and type all or part of 

the person’s name. 

6. Click Show Results. 

The contacts matching the criteria are listed. 

7. Check the contacts you want to send the message to. 

8. Repeat from step 5 until you have completed selecting the contacts. Then 

click Continue. 


Obtain Recipients from an Import File 

You can send a message to recipients defined in an import file. When using an import 

file, all records define recipients: You cannot send a message to a subset of an import 

file. 

The import file can contain a list of people and their telephone numbers and/or email 

addresses. It can only contain one telephone number and one email address per person. 

The import file can also contain a list of student IDs, and you can let SchoolConnects 

look up the contact information in the Address Book. 

When you specify to use an import file to send a message, you see the following 

window: 

STEPS 

1. Click Browse to go to the location on your computer or network where the file 

containing the import data is located, and double-click on your import file. 

2. If you already have a file specification for this import file, click Finish. If you do 

not have a file specification for this import file, you need to create a file 

specification. 



58 



When you create an announcement, you have the option to create your own message 

for the announcement or to use an existing canned or pre-recorded message. These 

canned messages have been prepared with pre-recorded sound bytes, ready to be used. 

There are many of these canned messages to choose from. 

STEPS 


The Send a Message window appears. 

2. Click Announcement: Use a Canned Message. 

The Create Announcement Wizard begins. 








Identify the message 

STEPS 

1. Select the school to send the message to. 

If you are logged in as a school user, your school is selected automatically. 

If you are logged in as a district user, you can select a single school, or you can 

select all schools in the district. 

NOTE: If you selected a school to work with before creating this message, that 

school is selected for sending this message. If you want to send the message to the 

entire district, cancel this wizard, and click Change School to change to all 

schools in the district. Then you can start to create the message. 

2. In the Select Message field, select the message you want to send. 


60 


Schedule delivery of your message 

STEPS 

1. Select the type of message you want to send: Call, email, or both call and 

email. 

To send emails to parents who have email addresses, and only call those 

parents who do not have an email address, or vice versa, click More to see 

additional options. 

2. Usually, you leave the priority at the default for this type of message. 

3. Select the date you want the message to start going out. The default is the 

date selected on the calendar, which is today’s date, unless you previously 

selected a different date. 

4. Select the date you want the message to expire if it has not been delivered to 

all recipients. In most cases, you can just leave the default date. Make sure you 

allow enough time for all of the calls to be made. 


5. If you are calling, specify the time you want the calls to start. Otherwise, skip 

to Step 7. If your calls will continue into the weekend, be sure to specify 

weekend start times also. 

TIP: If your call is to go out immediately, you may want to allow yourself an extra 

15 minutes to double-check your message or to make last-minute changes. 

6. Specify the time you want the calls to stop for the night, even if the calls have 

not been completed. 

Generally, your template limits calling times to those deemed reasonable for 

this type of message. 

If the calls have not completed when the stop time arrives, the system starts 

calling the next day during the call times specified for that day, if you allowed 

additional days for calling. 

NOTE: If you specified multiple days to allow the calls to complete, and it is possible 

that calls will continue over the weekend, be sure to specify the weekend calling 

times. You do not want to be calling parents early on a weekend morning. 

7. If you are sending emails, specify the time you want the emails to start and 

end. 

8. Click Next. The Create Message window appears. 

62 


Create the email contents (if applicable) 

STEPS 

1. If you are sending emails, and no email text is provided for you, enter the email 

subject in the Subject field. 

2. Ensure the email contents are complete. If you are sending student-specific 

information in the email, use email substitution tags as required. 

3. Optional: To include an attachment, click Add, then Browse to the file you 

want to include. Double-click on the file, or select it and click Open. When you 

have attached the file, click Upload. You can now see the attachment has 

been added. To add more attachments, repeat this process. 

NOTE: Email attachments are limited to certain file types, such as PDF. There are 

also limits to the size of the email. Do not exceed 2MB or some parents may not be 

able to receive the email. 

4. If custom information fields are displayed at the bottom of the window, select 

the options you want for your message. In the example above, the user can 


choose the tone of the message. In this case, the message says “please 

encourage the student to return ...“ 

5. When you are happy with the message, click Next. 

Specify who to send the message to 

You can send messages to the entire student population from the SchoolConnects 

Address Book, or to part of the student population, such as a particular grade. You can 

send a message to one or more contact lists, or to both the student population and a 

contact list such as Staff. You can send a message to everyone whose student ID appears 

in a file, referred to as an import file. Which of these options you choose depends on 

your needs. 

STEPS 

1. In Choose recipients from, specify where your list of message recipients 

comes from. If you want to send the message to the student population, select 

the Address Book. If you want to send the message to your staff, most likely 

you will use a contact list for staff. (Some schools include a grade for staff in 

their Address Book.) If you want to send the message to students who have 

64 


not yet paid for a class trip, most likely you will use an import file, which 

contains the amount outstanding for each student. 

• If you want to send the message to the student population, select 

Address Book. 

• If you want to send the message to your staff, most likely you need to 

select Contact list. 

• If you want to send the message to students who owe money for a class 

trip, and include the amount owing, select Import file. 

• If you want to send the message to all Grade 3 students and teachers, 

most likely you need to select Address Book and contact list. The 

student names come from the Address Book and the staff from a 

contact list. 

2. Choose the recipients you want to contact from the appropriate source: 

• If you chose Import file as the source for your list of recipients, skip to the 

next step. 

• If you chose the Address Book as a source for your list of recipients, in 

the Select recipients box, click Address Book, and specify the criteria to 

select your recipients. 

• If you chose Contact list as a source for your list of recipients, in the 

Select recipients box, click Contact List, and specify the criteria to select 

your recipients. 

3. Optional: If you want to call multiple contacts for each student, to ensure 

delivery of the message, under Optional Settings, click Cascade calling. Then, 

in the box that appears, select the delivery options, and number of retries. 

4. Optional: If you need to call relative numbers or student secondary numbers, 

click Additional contact options, and check the desired options. 



Step 5: Review the Summary 

The Summary page is usually the last page that you see when creating a new message. 

This page provides a last opportunity for you to review the details of your message 

before it is created. 

The left-most column contains check marks for steps that are complete, and Xs for 

steps that may not be complete. 

NOTE: The summary may continue beyond what you can see. Use the scroll bar to view 

all of the information. 

STEPS 

1. Scan the left-most column of the Summary page, looking for any items that do 

not have check marks. 

NOTE: An X does not necessarily mean a problem. For example, if you are sending 

your message via email, but do not have an attachment to include, you see a red 

X next to Email Attachment. Provided you did not intend to include an 

attachment, this is not a problem. 

66 


2. Review the call and email times to be sure they are what you want. 

NOTE: Be sure to check both weekday and weekend times if your call spans both. 

For example, if you are sending a message on a Friday that may not complete 

before Saturday, be sure your calling times are not too early for the weekend 

settings. 

3. Review the phone number source and email source to ensure they are correct. 

4. If you chose recipients from the Address Book, you can see the criteria used to 

select the students. You can also see how many students were selected. 

Quickly review the numbers. If they do not look reasonable, double-check 

your selections. 

5. If you chose recipients from contact lists, you can see the contact lists selected. 

Review the list and ensure it is correct. 

6. If you need to make changes, either click Previous to return to the correct 

step, or click the step number at the top of the page. When you are satisfied 

with your message, click Finish. 

If you selected to import recipients in an import file, the next window you see 

takes you through the process of specifying your import file. 

SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide 67

Work with Messages 

You can see the messages you created when you view a list of messages. You can view 

All Messages to see all types of messages, or view messages by a particular type. For 

these examples, we viewed announcements. Messages are separated into their 

respective schools. 

Suspend a message 

STEPS 

1. To suspend a message, select (check) the message, then click Suspend. 

If you later change your mind, and want the calls to be made after all, select 

the message and click Resume. 

View the recipients for a message 

STEPS 

1. Click on the Notepad icon beside the message. 

The Select Call Information to View window appears. 

2. Select the view options and click View List. 

The list of recipients is displayed. 

68 


Add more recipients to a message 

You can add more recipients to a message that has not expired. 

STEPS 

1. Select the message and click Add Recipients. 

2. The Announcement Wizard steps you through the process of adding 

recipients, including selecting the school, if applicable, selecting where the 

student data should come from and the process of selecting the additional 

recipients. 

3. When you have completed the process, click Finish. The additional recipients 

are added to the message. 

Listen to a sample call 

Sample call is a feature that sends a call out to you right away, allowing you to hear 

exactly how a message will sound when it goes out to the telephone numbers in your 

list. 

STEPS 



2. Click View List. 

You see all of the telephone numbers to be called. 

3. Click on the Notepad icon beside one of the telephone numbers. 

You now see the Edit Call Properties window. 


4. Click the Sample # tab so that you see the window below: 

5. In the Call Type field, specify the type of call this sample call to you will be. 

Choose from the following: 

• Direct Connection if the number to call is a direct number, such as a cell 

phone 

• Live Attendant if a person will answer the call and then transfer the call 

to your extension 

• Auto Attendant if an automated attendant will answer the call and 

then transfer the call to your extension 

6. In the Phone # field, enter the telephone number where you can be reached. 

NOTE: Sample Call uses the dialing rules that are configured, so even if the call 

is long distance, you normally do not need to type a 1. 

7. In the Extension field, if you chose Live Attendant or Auto Attendant, enter 

the extension number. 

8. Optional: In the Channel field, if you are testing outbound calls on different 

channels, you can enter a channel number. Otherwise, leave it blank. 

9. Click Sample Call. 

The system should call the number you indicated within one or two minutes. 

Send a sample email 


You can only send a sample email for active messages that are to send emails. 

70 


You can send a sample email to yourself to see exactly how the message appears to its 

recipients. 

STEPS 



2. Click View List. 

The list of recipients is displayed. 

3. Select the email you want to sample (check the box next to the record). 

4. In the Sample email address field, enter your email address (or the address 

you want the sample sent to). 

5. Click Sample Email. 

This does not send an email to the person selected, but any tags used in the 

email message are used in the sample email. The email is sent to the address 

you specified in a few minutes. 

View the progress of a message 

STEPS 


The Select Call Information to View window appears. You see a summary of 

the message and you can choose how to view the details. An example is 

shown below: 


Note that the items available to view depend on what information you use in 

the message. This example is both call and email. 

72 


2. Choose what information you want to view, and click View List. 

You now see the list of recipients displayed by their current status. You can 

view this any time during the calling period and afterward for a quick 

snapshot of the message’s progress. 

Listen to call responses 


This feature is relevant only in districts where the Call Response feature is in use. If the 

absence message template allows a call recipient to record a message explaining an 

absence, this is how the attendance secretary hears those recordings. 

STEPS 

1. Click on the Dialog Cloud icon beside the message. 

The Edit Call Responses window appears. 


2. Select the Responses tab. 

3. Click on the Record icon. The Recording Center appears. Have the system call 

you so you can listen to the message. 

4. Click Play to play the message. In the white box, you can type a very short 

summary of the response—just two or three words at the most. If it is a long 

and important message, you may want to write it down on paper or type it in 

a Notepad or Word document for your records, or enter it directly into your 

student information system. Click Stop and Play as required until you are 

finished listening to the message. 

5. Do not click Hang Up. Click Save Text. 

The Edit Responses window reappears. The information you typed is 

displayed in the Explanation field. 


7. You can then click on the next black triangle to hear information for the next 

student. If you did not hang up the telephone, you do not need to go through 

the calling process again: You are still connected to the system. 

NOTE: If you put the system on hold for more than 30 seconds or do not do 

anything for more than 30 seconds, the system hangs up on you. 

Reactivate a message 

If a message has expired but not all of the people in the list were called, you can 

reactivate the message by changing the expiry date. SchoolConnects attempts to call the 

remaining people in the list. When you extend or reactivate a message, SchoolConnects 

does not call people who were already reached. Calls with the status Busy, No Answer, 

or Hangup are called again. Calls with the status Delivered - Verified, Delivered - 

Machine, Delivered - Unverified, or Tri-tone Ignored are not called again. 

74 


STEPS 

1. In the list of messages, click on the Clock icon next to the message you want 

to change. 

The Announcement Settings window appears. 

2. Click on the Calendar icon beside the Expiry Date and choose a new expiry 

date. 


Change message settings 

You can change message settings such as delivery date, call times, confirmation 

settings, or you can re-record your message. 

STEPS 

1. In the list of messages, click on the Clock icon next to the message you want 

to change. 

The Announcement Settings window appears. You can modify any settings 

such as the start date and end date, the call or email times, the email message 

or the recording. Simply click on the appropriate tab and make your changes. 

2. Make any desired changes and click Save. 


Send a Message Again 

You can send an announcement or emergency message again if you see it in the list of 

announcements or emergency messages. You cannot send a message again when 

viewing All Messages. 

If you have messages that you know you are going to need to send multiple times, it is 

recommended that you create those as reusable messages. 

You can do the following with an announcement or emergency message: 

• Send the same message again to the same recipients—You may want to send the 

same message monthly, such as a pizza day announcement. 

• Send a new message to the same recipients—You may want to send a new 

message regarding a meeting date and time to the Parent Council. 

Send the same message again to the same recipients 

You can send an announcement again without having to re-record the message. 

STEPS 

1. In the Navigation pane, click Announcement or Emergency as applicable, to 

view the list of messages. 

2. Select (check) the announcement or Emergency message you want to resend, 

and click Send Again. 

The following window appears: 

3. Same message is the default, so just click Next. 

4. Specify the date and time to send the message and click Finish. 

The new message appears in the list of messages. 

76 


Send a new message to the same recipients 

STEPS 

1. In the Navigation pane, click Announcement or Emergency as applicable, to 

view the list of messages. 

2. Select (check) the announcement or Emergency message you want to resend, 

and click Send Again. 


3. Select New Message and click Next. 

The Recording Center appears. 

4. Record your message and click Continue. 

5. Specify the date and time to send the message and click Finish. 

The new message appears in the list of messages. 


Create a Reusable Message 

You can create a message that you can use multiple times. This feature makes it easy for 

you to create commonly-used announcement or Emergency messages and reuse them 

whenever you need them. They appear in a list of reusable messages and templates 

when you choose to reuse a message. 

STEPS 

1. Create a new announcement or Emergency message. 

2. In Step 1 of the wizard, under Optional Settings, check Make message 

reusable. 

3. Continue creating the message as usual, including the date and times for the 

first time you want the message to be sent. When your message is created, it 

appears in the list of messages. 

View the reusable message 

You can view the reusable messages you created by looking at the list of message 

templates for that type of message. 

STEPS 

1. In the Navigation pane, click Settings, then select Manage Message 

Templates in the work space. 

2. Click Announcement Templates (or Emergency Templates). The list of 

announcements sent appears, sorted by date, newest at the top. 

Those messages created as reusable have a Y displayed in the Reusable 

column. Those without a Y are regular, single-use messages. If you want to 

make a message reusable you can do so. See "Make a message reusable". 

For instructions on reusing the message, see "Reuse a Message". 

78 


Make a message reusable 

You can make an announcement or Emergency message reusable even if it was not 

created as a reusable message. 

STEPS 

1. In the Navigation pane, click Settings, then select Manage Message 

Templates in the work space. 

2. Click Announcement Templates (or Emergency Templates). The list of 

announcements sent appears, sorted by date, newest at the top. 

3. Locate the message you want to make reusable and click on the NotePad icon 

next to it. 

The Edit Message Template window appears. 

4. On the General tab, check Reusable Message and click Save. 

The next time you use Reuse Message to create an announcement, this 

message appears in the list of messages to choose from. 


Reuse a Message 

You can reuse an announcement or an Emergency message, provided that it is a 

reusable message. (To reuse a message that was not created as a reusable message, see 

"Send a Message Again" or see Make a message reusable.) 

STEPS 


2. Click Announcement: Reuse Message or Emergency: Reuse Message.. 

3. Select the school, if applicable. 

If you are logged on as a school user, your school is selected for you. 

4. In the Select Message drop-down list, select the message you want to reuse. 

TIP: If the message you want to reuse is not in the list, it was probably not created 

as a reusable message. 

5. Continue creating the message. You can change the recipients, or any of the 

delivery options. You cannot change the recorded message itself. 

80 


Create a Quick Attendance Message 


Before you can use Quick Attendance, you must have one or more attendance message 

templates set up, and a file specification for your import data. 

See "Create an Attendance Message Template" for instructions on creating an 

attendance message template, and Create a File Specification for instructions on 

creating a file specification. 

In some districts, attendance messages are handled centrally via an automated process. 

In this case, the school user need not do anything except enter attendance data in the 

student information system. 

On other districts, the school user may need to generate the absence report each day 

from the student information system and upload the file into SchoolConnects. You 

may send attendance messages once a day, or you may send them multiple times a day. 

You want an easy way to send out attendance messages with the least amount of effort. 

The Quick Attendance wizard provides you with a quick way to create these messages 

when you must do it manually. 

STEPS 

1. Generate the daily absence file in your student information system. 

2. Save the file to a predictable location. (Choose a location where you can 

always look for the latest file.) 

3. Log in to SchoolConnectsWeb with the login provided to you by your IT 

department. 

4. In the right-hand pane, click Quick Attendance Message. 

The Create Quick Attendance Message window appears. 


5. If applicable, select the school. 

6. Browse to the import file containing the absence data. 

7. Specify the start and end times for the calls (and emails, if applicable), or just 

take the defaults. 

8. Click Finish. The message is created. 

If you import an absence file two or more times a day ... 

You may want to call regarding absences both in the morning and in the afternoon, or 

even after every period of the day. 

If you upload a file multiple times per day, but the information for a student does not 

change, only one telephone call is made for that student. 

For example, say that Joe Jones was marked absent in period 1. You upload a file 

immediately after period 1 and SchoolConnects begins calling at 9:15 a.m. Joe’s house 

is called and a message is delivered saying he was absent in period 1. 

82 


After period 2, you generate a new absence file and upload it. Joe Jones is in this file 

because he was marked absent in period 1, and the new file still shows him with an 

absence in period 1. Joe’s house is not called again because the information for Joe is 

the same as before. 

It turns out that Joe, although he did show up for period 2, was absent period 3. You 

generate another absence file after period 3 and upload it to SchoolConnects. This time, 

another call goes out to Joe’s household saying that he was marked absent in periods 1 

and 3. 

At the end of the day, you generate a final file and do a final upload. Joe did not miss 

any other classes, so no other calls go to his home. 

If your absence file does not include any information about periods, blocks, or other 

time periods, then the information for a given student does not change throughout the 

day. If Joe is marked absent in the morning and you upload a file at 9 a.m., his 

household is called at 9 a.m. If he continues to be absent throughout the day and you 

upload another file at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and so on, no further calls go to 

Joe’s house. 



STEPS 

1. In the Navigation pane, click Manage Contacts. 

2. In the right-hand pane, click Contact Lists. 

The Contact List window appears. You see any existing contact lists for your 

school. The lists are organized by user. 

3. Click New. 

The Create Contact List window appears. 

4. In the Contact List Name field, enter a name for your contact list. 

The owner of the list is the user name you logged in as. 

5. If you are logged in as a district user, select the name of the school to which 

this list applies. 


The Import Source window appears. 

84 


7. Specify where your contact information is to come from. 

• If the information is contained in a file, select Import from file and skip 

to step 17. 

• If all of the contacts exist in the Address Book, select Import from 

Address Book and go to step 8. 

• If you want to add contacts not in the Address Book, you need to add 

them from an import file, or manually, one at a time. To add them 

manually, select Add one contact manually and skip to step 15. 

8. If you selected the Address Book as your source, click Next. 

The Add Contacts window appears. 

9. Click Address Book. 

The Select Recipients from Address Book window appears. 

10. Click Select Subset or Individuals to view a list of students to choose from. 

The following window appears. 


11. In the Choose a method for selecting your recipients box, specify how you will 

build your list: 

• If you plan to include an entire category of students, such as a grade or 

language, leave the default at Select subset by Grade, Home Room, or 

other category. Then select the category containing the students you want 

86 


to include. You can click Continue to complete the selection, or click View 

Selected to verify your list, and then click Continue. 

• If you need to select students individually, choose Select individuals. 


12. Use the List By or Search By fields to locate the students you want to include 

by specifying the criteria and clicking Show Results. 

You see the list of students that match the criteria. 

If you leave the defaults, the students are listed by grade and sorted 

alphabetically by name, as shown. 


13. Select (check) the students you want to include in your contact list. 

TIP: You can check names, then change the list or search criteria and check more 

names, repeating this process until you have selected everyone you want. 

At any time, you can click View Selected to see the people in your list so far. 

14. Click Continue when you have finished selecting people for your contact list, 

and then click Finish to complete the process. 

15. If you chose to manually add contacts one at a time, click Next. 


88 


16. Enter the name, telephone number and/or email address, and any other 

information required for your first contact, and click Finish. 

When you refresh the list of contact lists, the new contact list appears. Add the 

remainder of the contacts to the list. For instructions on adding contacts to a 

contact list, see Manually add contacts to a contact list. 

17. If you selected an import file as your source, and no file specification exists for 

your import file, click File Specification and create the file specification for 

your import file. For instructions on creating a file specification, seeCreate a 

File Specification. 


The Add Contacts window appears. 


19. Browse to the import file and select it. 

20. Click Finish. 

RESULT: 

Your contact list is now ready to use in announcements. If the contacts were selected 

from the Address Book, the telephone number and other contact information is 

retrieved from the Address Book when a message is sent, so your contact information 

is always current. If you created the contacts manually, or loaded their telephone 

numbers from an import file, you must manually update them when necessary. 




Contact Lists 

90 


Modify a Contact List 

If you created a contact list by selecting people from the Address Book, the telephone 

number and other contact information is automatically updated. If you created the 

records manually, you must manually update the information. If you created the 

contact list from an import file, you may want to import an updated list periodically. 

STEPS 


2. In the right-hand pane, click Contact Lists. 

The Contact List window appears. You see any existing contact lists for your 

school. The lists are organized by user. 

3. Click on the person icon next to the contact list you want to change. 

All records in the contact list are displayed. 

4. Locate the record you want to change. You can use the search function to 

locate a specific record, or you can change the way the date is presented and 

sorted, to help you find a record. 

TIP: Whenever you change the way you view or sort the contact list, you must 

click Go for the change to take effect. 

5. Click the person icon next to the contact you want to modify, and make the 

required changes. 

6. Click Save when you have completed making your changes. 

Manually add contacts to a contact list 

STEPS 

1. Next to the contact list you want to add contacts to, click the person icon. The 

details for that contact list appear. 

2. Click New to add a new contact. 

3. Enter the contact information and click Save. 


Add to a contact list from the Address Book 

STEPS 

1. Next to the contact list you want to add contacts to, click the person icon. 

The details for that contact list appear. 

2. Click Address Book to add contacts from the Address Book. 

3. Select (check) the contacts you want to add and click Finish. 

Add to a contact list from an import file 

STEPS 

1. Next to the contact list you want to add contacts to, click the person icon. 


2. Click File to import new contacts from a file. 

The Create Contact List from File window appears. 

3. Browse to the import file. 

4. Optional: If you want to replace all contacts in the current list with the new list, 

select Clear Contacts before import. 

5. Click Import. 

Delete a record from the contact list 

STEPS 

1. Next to the contact list you want to delete the contact from, click the person 

icon. 


92 


2. Select (check) the contact you want to delete. 

3. Click Delete and confirm that you want to delete the record. 

Change the telephone number for a contact 

STEPS 

1. Next to the contact list you want to change, click the person icon. 


2. Locate the contact in the list and click the person icon for the contact whose 

number you want to change. 

The Edit Contact Properties window appears. Change the information as 

required, then click Save. 

NOTE: If the Use Address Book option is set to Yes, you cannot save manual 

changes to the telephone number in the contact list. This number is read from the 

Address Book. The number can only be changed in the Address Book. 



In many districts, the Address Book is updated automatically from the student 

information system. Therefore, you should understand that any manual changes you 

make to the Address Book may be overwritten at the next automatic update. 

In other districts, the Address Book is updated manually by importing data from a file 

that has been extracted from the student information system. 




Contact Lists 


Import a new Address Book 

If your Address Book is not updated automatically, you may be required to update it 

periodically throughout the school year and prior to each new school year. 

NOTE: Before you can import a new Address Book from a file, you must first have a file 

specification for your import file. If you do not have an existing file specification, see 

Create a File Specification for instructions on creating one. 

STEPS 


2. In the right-hand pane, click Address Book. 

The Address Book window appears. 


94 



The Create Address Book from File window appears. 

5. If you only want to import student household contact data (no relative 

contact information), leave the default at Import student personal 

information. If you want to import relative contact data from the same file, 

check Import other student contact information. 

6. If you want to remove any existing students from the Address Book before 

importing, check Remove existing Address Book students who are not in 

the import file. 

NOTE: Do not clear the Address Book before importing, unless directed to do so by 

Synrevoice Technical Support. 

7. Click Browse and browse to the import file containing your new Address Book 

data. 


The new student data is loaded into the Address Book. This may take several 

minutes, depending on the size of the Address Book. 

Search for a student in the Address Book 

You can search for a student by name, ID, telephone number, home room, and so on. 

STEPS 

1. Ensure you are viewing all grades. 

2. In the Search By field, select the appropriate search type—Use the default 

Name, or select other search types from the drop-down list. 


3. In the Enter Search Text field, type in the relevant search criteria. If you are 

searching by name, type in the student name, or part of the name. 

4. Click Find. The first matching item is displayed. If this is not the right record, 

click Next until you find the correct student. 

Manually add a student to the Address Book 

You can manually add a student to the Address Book. However, if this information is 

usually propagated by importing a file from your student information system, any 

student information you enter here, such as telephone numbers or addresses should be 

considered temporary. It may be overwritten or deleted the next time you import your 

student information. If these students are not actually in your student information 

system and the Address Book is updated automatically, these “fake” students are 

removed from the Address Book each time it is automatically updated. 

You may want to manually add a student if you have a new student in your school and 

it will be some time before the student information is imported from your student 

information system. 

STEPS 





4. Click New. 

The Add Student window appears. 

5. On the General tab, specify the Name and the Student ID. 

6. Specify any additional information you want on this tab. 

96 


7. Click the Primary tab and specify a primary telephone number for the 

student. 

8. On the Primary and Secondary tabs, specify any additional information you 

need for this student. 

9. Click Save to add this student record to the Address Book. 

Delete a student from the Address Book 

You can manually delete a student from the Address Book. However, if the student 

information is usually propagated by importing a file from your student information 

system, it is unnecessary to delete students from the Address Book in this way. When 

the Address Book is updated automatically, students no longer listed in the update are 

deleted automatically. 

You may want to manually delete a student if the student moved to a new school and 

you want to stop calling them (you could also add them to the Do-Not-Call list), and it 

will be some time before the student information is imported from your student 

information system. 

STEPS 




3. Locate and select the student (check the box next to the student in the list), 

then click Delete. 


Prevent Calls to a Student or Phone Number 

You can prevent calls going out to a particular student, or you can prevent calls from 

going out to a telephone number. In both cases, you use the Do-Not-Call list. 

When you add a particular student ID to the Do-Not-Call list, any messages to that 

student are not called or emailed. This does not prevent calls from going to that 

telephone number for another student in the household. When you add a telephone 

number to the Do-Not-Call list, any telephone messages to that telephone number are 

not called. Therefore, if you want to stop calls to a student, add the student to the 

Do-Not-Call list. If you want to stop calls to a phone number, add the telephone 

number to the Do-Not-Call list. 

STEPS 


2. In the right-hand pane, click Do-Not-Call List. 

The Do-Not-Call List window appears. 

3. Click New. 


98 


4. In the Phone field, enter the telephone number in exactly the same format as 

it appears in the Address Book, or in the Student ID field, enter the student ID. 

SchoolConnects uses the information you enter in this window to match to a 

student record in the Address Book. The match must be exact for all fields 

entered. 

If you enter both a student ID and a telephone number, the match occurs only 

for the student with that ID at that telephone number. 

5. In the Type of Message drop-down list, select the type of messages this 

applies to. You can choose to block only Attendance, only Announcement 

and Emergency messages, or all. 

6. In the Comment field, enter a brief comment as a reminder why this student 

or number is being added to the Do-Not-Call list. 

RESULT: 

If you enter just the telephone number, the household is not called for your school 

(students in the same household in another school can still be called). 

If you enter just the student ID, all messages regarding that student (both call and 

email) are blocked. However, other students in the same household can still be called. 

If you enter both the telephone number and the student ID, all messages regarding that 

student (both calls and emails) are blocked, but other students in the same household 

can still be called. 


Delete a record from the Do-Not-Call list 

STEPS 


2. In the right-hand pane, click Do-Not-Call List. 

The Do-Not-Call List window appears. 

3. Select the student or telephone record by checking the box next to it and click 

Delete. 

100 


Restrict Messaging for a School or District 

District users can restrict messages at the District level, for any or all schools. School 

users can create restrictions only for their own school. They can also see whether a 

restriction has been set up by the District. 

NOTE: Message restriction does not affect Emergency calls made through the 

Rapidconnects feature. 

STEPS 

1. Log in to SchoolConnects as a user who has permission to restrict messaging. 


3. Under Suspend Messaging, click Restriction Schedule. 

The Notification Restriction Schedule window appears. 

4. Select the District Restriction tab if you are creating a restriction for a district. 

Otherwise, select the School Restriction tab. 


5. Click the Calendar icon next to the Restriction Start Date input field and 

select a start date in the calendar pop-up window. Repeat for Restriction End 

Date. 

6. In the Reason field, enter an explanation. 

7. In the Restrict field, choose the type of messages you want to restrict. 

NOTE: If you choose Calls Only, emails still go out but telephone calls do not. If 

you choose Calls and Emails, neither emails nor telephone calls go out. 

8. In the Do Not Deliver field, choose one or more message types to restrict by 

checking their corresponding check boxes. Check one or more choices from 

Attendance, Announcements, and Emergency Messages. 

9. If this is a district restriction, in the No Delivery Schools field, choose ALL 

Schools to restrict the entire district, or Select Schools to specify one or more 

schools to be restricted. 

If you select only some schools from the list, the restriction applies only to 

messages in the selected schools. 


Change the restriction schedule 

STEPS 




3. Click on the tab with the restriction you want to change: Either School 

Restriction or District Restriction. 

The current restriction schedule is displayed. 

4. Edit the fields as appropriate and click Save to save the new restriction 

schedule. 

Cancel the current restriction schedule 


You must be a District or School administrator to cancel the current restriction 

schedule. 

102 


STEPS 




3. Click Clear. 

RESULT: 

If a message was already in existence when the restriction was created, it is already 

suspended; clearing the restriction does not resume the message. The status remains 

the same after the restriction schedule for this task is cleared or the Start Date or End 

Date is changed. 

IMPORTANT: In this case, you must manually resume the message if you want the calls 

and emails to go out. 


104 


SchoolConnects Templates 

Before you can create an attendance message, you must first have an attendance 

message template. A SchoolConnects template contains the structure of the message 

and the default calling and emailing options. The template typically defines calling and 

emailing times, message priority, file specifications when importing contacts from a 

file, cascade calling options, and so on. Attendance and canned message templates also 

define the message that is sent. A call-in profile defines who is called, and the recorded 

message can be recorded at the last minute. 

You only need to create a template once, and then it can be used over and over again to 

create messages. 

Contents: 

• Create an Attendance Message Template 

• Attendance Message Defaults 

• Create a Canned Message Template 

• Canned Message Defaults 

• Create a File Specification 

• Set Up a Call-In Profile 


Create an Attendance Message Template 

Use this procedure to create a new absence, tardy, or absence and tardy message 

template. 

You can create more than one attendance message template. This is necessary if you 

want to send out one absence message first thing in the morning, but a different 

message in the evening. 

In a District, you can choose whether to create one template for each school or use the 

same template for all schools. You can have one template for the high schools, which 

use period attendance, and a second template for the middle schools, which use daily 

attendance. Ask your Synrevoice Technical Support representative for advice. 

NOTE: At any time throughout this procedure, instead of clicking Next, you can click 

Finish, provided that the default options meet your needs. For a list of defaults, see 

Attendance Message Defaults. Also, if you know what tab you want to change, you can 

click the tab, make your changes, and then click Finish. 

STEPS 


2. Hover over Manage Message Templates, and click Attendance Templates. 

The list of Attendance message templates appears. 

3. Click New. 

The Create Attendance Message Template window appears. 

106 


4. Give your template a meaningful name. 

5. On the School tab, do the following: 

a If this template is to apply only to a single school, select the school. 

b If you do not want the school name to be played before the message is 

delivered, uncheck For calls, play school name before delivering the 

message. 

NOTE: Throughout this procedure, you can always see the message that will 

be delivered as it is displayed in the Preview Message frame at the bottom. 

The message changes depending on the options you select. 

c Click Next. 

6. On the Type of Message tab, do the following: 

a Select the type of messages to be sent using this template. Absence is 

the default. 

b Click Next. 

7. On the Student tab, do the following: 

a Specify how you want to identify the student in the message. Grade and 

student’s first name are the defaults. 

b Click Next. 


8. On the Attendance tab, do the following: 

a Specify the type of attendance messages to send. Period attendance is 

the default, with a period length of 1. 

b If you chose period attendance, specify the number of characters used 

to identify the period: 1 or 2. 

c Click Next. 

9. Do one of the following, depending on the type of attendance: 

• If you chose Period attendance, on the Period tab, specify the list of 

periods at which time you want the message to say the student was 

absent all day, rather than having to list every period. 

Do this by typing the list in the input field next to the Add button, and 

then click Add. 

• If you chose Morning, afternoon, or full day absence, on the Day tab, 

specify the absence codes that represent morning, afternoon, and all 

day. 

If you do not have morning, afternoon, and all day codes in your import 

file, click Previous, and select Play a generic message instead. 


108 


11. On the Explanation tab, select one or more methods you want to use for 

requesting an explanation, and click Next. 

12. On the Delivery tab, do the following: 

a Specify whether this message is for calls only, calls and emails, and so 

on. 

b If you want this message to be sent with a priority less than High, change 

the priority. 

c Click Next. 

13. Do each of the following as applicable: 

• If you chose Call as a delivery method, on the Call tab, specify the times 

at which you want the calls to be made. 

• If you chose Email as a delivery method, on the Email tab, specify the 

times you want the email to be sent, and create the email contents. 


15. On the Cascade tab, specify if you want to call all contacts or to cascade 

contacts (cycle through a list of contacts until a person or answering machine 

is reached), and click Next. 

16. On the Confirmation tab, specify any desired confirmation options, and click 

Next. 

17. On the Import tab, specify whether to remove duplicate records from the list 

to call, and click Next. 

18. Optional: On the Sample tab, you can listen to the message that will be sent. 

To listen to the message, do the following: 

a Check Listen to a sample message. 

b Enter a telephone number where you can be reached. 

c Fill in the remaining fields with test data. 

When the template is created, a message is also created to make the 

sample call to you. 


The template is created. Before you can use this template, it must have a file 

specification that tells SchoolConnects how to read your attendance data. For 

instructions on creating a file specification, see "Create a File Specification". 


Attendance Message Defaults 


Attendance Message Defaults 

The defaults used in the Attendance Message templates are as follows: 

Template name: 

Attendance Message 

Template properties 

• All schools 

• Play school name message before delivering message 

• Absence message 

• Grade and student’s first name 

• Period attendance where the period number is 1 character in length 

• Request a written note to explain the absence 

• Calls only 

• Priority is high 

• Call weekdays between 4 and 9 p.m., call weekends between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. 

• No confirmation is required 

• Call all contacts, no cascade calling 

• Remove duplicates by phone number 

• Use phone numbers only from the selected source 


Create an Attendance Message Template 

110 


Create a Canned Message Template 

Use this procedure to create a new canned message template, which is very useful when 

you want to record a message once and send out the same message each week, twice a 

year, or however often is required. A popular example is Saturday School, in which each 

week, you send a message home to notify parents that their child must attend Saturday 

School that week. 

NOTE: At any time throughout this procedure, instead of clicking Next, you can click 

Finish, provided that the default options meet your needs. For a list of defaults, see 

Canned Message Defaults. Also, if you know what tab you need to change, you can click 

on the tab, make your changes, and then click Finish. 

STEPS 


2. Hover over Manage Message Templates, and click Canned Message 

Templates. 

The list of canned message templates appears. 

Note that the list of templates includes Stock message templates, which you 

cannot edit or delete. 

3. Click New. 

The Create Canned Message Template window appears. 


4. Give your template a meaningful name. 

5. On the School tab, do the following: 

a If applicable, select the school, if this template is to apply to a single 

school. 

b If you do not want the school name to be played before the message is 

delivered, uncheck For calls, play school name before delivering the 

message. 

NOTE: Throughout this procedure, you can always see the message that will 

be delivered as it is displayed in the Preview Message frame at the bottom. 

The message changes depending on the options you select. 

c Click Next. 

6. On the Language tab, select the language in which the message will be 

recorded. If you require multiple languages, leave the default at 

Multilanguage. 


8. On the Recording tab, click Record Message, and record your message. 

9. When you have finished your recording, click Next. 

10. On the Student tab, if your message requires information about the student 

in it, specify the information you want to include, and click Next. 

112 


11. On the Delivery tab, do the following: 

a Specify whether this message is for calls only, calls and emails, and so 

on. 

b If you want this message to be sent with a priority greater than Low, 

change the priority. 

c Click Next. 

12. Do each of the following as applicable: 

• If you chose Call as a delivery method, on the Call tab, specify the times 

at which you want the calls to be made. 

• If you chose Email as a delivery method, on the Email tab, specify the 

times you want the email to be sent, and create the email contents. 


14. On the Cascade tab, specify if you want to call all contacts or to cascade 

contacts (cycle through a list of contacts until a person or answering machine 

is reached), and click Next. 

15. On the Confirmation tab, specify any desired confirmation options, and click 

Next. 

16. On the Import tab, specify whether to remove duplicate records from the list 

to call, and click Next. 

17. Optional: On the Sample tab, you can listen to the message that will be sent. 

To listen to the message, do the following: 

a Check Listen to a sample message. 

b Enter a telephone number where you can be reached. 

c Fill in the remaining fields with test data. 

When the template is created, a message is also created to make the 

sample call to you. 


The template is created. When you use this template, you specify the 

recipients. 


Canned Message Defaults 


Canned Message Defaults 

The defaults used in the Canned Message templates are as follows: 

Template name: 

Canned Message 

Template properties 

• All schools 

• Play school name message before delivering message 

• Multiple languages 

• Include no student-specific information, such as grade or student name 

• Calls only 

• Priority is low 

• Call weekdays between 4 and 9 p.m., call weekends between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. 

• No confirmation is required 

• Call all contacts, no cascade calling 

• Remove duplicates by phone number 

• Use phone numbers only from the selected source 


Create a Canned Message Template 

114 


Create a File Specification 

SchoolConnects requires a file specification for any file used to import data into the 

system. The file specification tells SchoolConnects how to read your file. If your data is 

always in the same format regardless of the import file or type of data, you can use the 

same file specification for all import files. 

STEPS 

1. When you click the File Specification button from anywhere in 

SchoolConnects, you launch the File Specification wizard. 

2. Specify the type of import file. 

If the file is an Excel spreadsheet, select Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, XP or 2003, 

or Microsoft Excel 95, as appropriate. 

If the file is a comma-separated file, where each person is listed on a new line, 

select CSV text file (one record per line). 

If the file is a formatted text file, select Formatted text file. 

3. If you have not already done so, browse to locate the import file. 

If the import file is already identified, a link to the file appears below the 

Browse button. 



5. If the file type is Excel or .csv, skip this step. If the file is a formatted text file, the 

following window appears: 

a In the Record Definition box, select the applicable option to specify 

how a record is defined within the file. 

b If you chose End of record character(s), you must define which 

character is used to identify the end of each record. Click Choose to 

specify the character. Select the character from the list, click Add to add 

it to the definition, and then click Close. 

c If fields in the record are separated by separation characters (such as 

commas), in the Field Separator box, click Choose to specify the 

character. Select the character from the list, click Add to add it to the 

definition, and then click Close. 

d Click Next. 

6. If the file contains a heading record, select the heading record, and click Skip 

Record(s). 

This prevents the heading information from being loaded as data. 

7. Select a record in the file to use as a sample record for specifying the fields to 

SchoolConnects, and click Sample Record. 


The following window appears, showing the SchoolConnects fields on the 

left, and the fields in your file on the right. 

116 


9. Select a data field in the import file on the right by clicking on the field. That 

field is highlighted in the import file and all fields are highlighted in the list of 

SchoolConnects fields. 

10. Click on the corresponding SchoolConnects field in the left-hand column. 

11. Continue mapping the fields until each field in the import file is mapped to a 

SchoolConnects field. 

12. If you are creating a file specification for an Address Book and you want to 

import relative contact data from your import file, click the Relative tab and 

map any applicable fields on that tab. 

13. When you have finished mapping all necessary fields, click Next 



14. If you want to ensure you do not have duplicate entries, select the method 

that works best for the type of data you are importing. 




118 


Set Up a Call-In Profile 

You can launch announcements and Emergency messages by calling in to the system, 

provided you have the following: 

• A numeric user ID (so you can enter it over a telephone) 

• A numeric password (so you can enter it over a telephone) 

• A call-in profile for the message you want to send 

Use this procedure to create the call-in profile and print the instructions you use to 

launch a message using this call-in profile. 

STEPS 


2. Hover over Manage Message Templates and click Call-In Profile Setup. 

The list of call-in profiles appears. 

3. Click New. 

4. Optional: Customers who subscribe to the Rapidconnects service see the 

Create Profile window, and can select which service makes the calls: the local 

server or Rapidconnects. Select the service, and click Next. If you are not a 

subscriber to Rapidconnects, you do not see this window. 

The Enter Profile Settings window appears. 


5. Do the following: 

a Select the school. 

b Give the profile a descriptive name. Avoid using names such as Profile 1 

and Profile 2. Use names such as Emergency Call to All Staff and Students. 

c Ensure that the profile has a unique ID. 

You can use the Profile ID that is automatically generated or create your 

own (it must be between 3 and 15 digits). Profile ID must be all numeric. 

You can use this ID to identify the profile you want when you call in to 

launch the message, or you can record the profile name and use that to 

select the profile when you call in. 

d Record a descriptive name for the profile. 

The name should be as descriptive as possible so that it can be used to 

select the right profile over the telephone. For example, Emergency 

Priority Call to All Staff and Students, or Girls’ Basketball Team sent any time 

of day or night, or Announcement to Grade 9 Students, sent between 4 p.m. 

and 9 p.m.. 

e You can designate a maximum length for messages recorded for this 

profile, or leave it at unlimited. 

f Click Next. The Specify the message template to use window appears. 

120 


6. Do one of the following: 

• Choose a template from the list, and click Next. 

IMPORTANT: Do not select any of the templates whose names include 

"Default Settings" in them, such as Emergency Default Settings or 

Announcement Default Settings. 

• Click Create a new template. 

The window expands as shown: 

Give the template a meaningful name. 

Specify the number of days to allow the calls to complete. 

The priority must be Emergency if you want the calls to go out before 

7:30 a.m. Otherwise, choose the appropriate priority. 

Although the interface gives you a weekday and weekend start and end 

time, make the weekday and weekend start times the same. 

(Rapidconnects does not use the end times.) 


8. Specify whether to call all contacts or to use cascade calling, and click Next. 

If you select Cascade Contacts, you then need to specify what constitutes 

Delivered, and click Next again. 

9. Specify how you want duplicate telephone numbers tor student IDs to be 

handled, and click Next. 

10. Select the kind of numbers you want to call (primary, secondary, relative), and 

click Next. 

The If using contact list window appears. 


11. If you want this profile to call everyone in a particular contact list, check 

Include the following Contact List(s) and select (check) the lists to be bound 

to the profile. 

You can select as many lists as required. 


The If using Address Book window appears. 

122 


13. If applicable, select the school or schools to include, and then students you 

want to include. 

14. Select the students to include in the call list: 

• To select all students in the selected schools, leave the default at Select 

All Students. 

• To select all students in a group, such as all Grade 9 students, choose 

Select Students Using Basic Criteria, and select the group or groups to 

call. 

• To select students using other criteria, choose Select Students using 

Advanced Criteria, and use an SQL query to generate a list of students. 


The Assign to User Account window appears. 

16. Assign one or more users to the profile as follows: 

a Assign a user to the profile by checking the box to the left of the user ID. 

b Optional: Assign Administrator privileges to one or more users by 

checking Administrator for that user. 

If you do not assign Administrator privileges to any users, all users who 

can access the profile can administer it. 

c Optional: Specify that approval is required for a user to launch calls 

using this profile by checking Approval Required for the user. 

Only the users you select have access to the profile and can use it to launch 

messages. Others cannot see it or use it. 

NOTE: You must have a user account that has a numeric user ID and a numeric 

password to be able to continue from this point. 


You can now view a summary of the call-in profile you created. 

NOTE: Any settings can be changed except the choice of Local Voice Server or 

Rapidconnects. 


You see a confirmation message that the new profile was created successfully. 


19. Click Close. 

You see a list of call-in profiles, with your newly-created profile highlighted in 

the list. 

CAUTION: You can change your profile settings. However, you must be aware that 

changing the Messages tab also changes the template you based the profile on, and 

any other profiles based on the same template. 

20. To print the instructions to launch a call using this profile, do the following: 

a Edit the call-in profile by clicking the Notepad icon beside the new 

profile: 

b 

Click the Users tab. 

The list of users appears. 

c 

The instructions to launch a call differ for each user. Next to your user ID, 

click the Printer icon to see your personal instructions. 

The instructions pop up. For example: 

124 


Print these instructions to keep them handy in your wallet or purse. 

TIP: You can copy and paste the instructions for each of your profiles into a single 

set of instructions in a Notepad or Word document. Be sure you include the profile 

number and a description in your document. Then print the document and carry 

it with you: You can then access any of your profiles remotely. 


126 


SchoolConnects Reports 

SchoolConnects has numerous built-in Crystal reports available. All reports can be 

generated and emailed for viewing, or they can be viewed online. Users can generate 

notification reports at any time to follow the progress of an ongoing message or to view 

a previous message. Reports are sent as attachments by email to the email addresses 

configured in the school properties window for each school and to other individuals. 

System administrators can also create scheduled tasks to email reports to various 

people automatically. 

Contents: 

• Available SchoolConnects Reports 

• Status Used in Reports 

• PIN Responses Used in Reports 

• Viewing Reports 

• Request a Notification Task Report 

• Request an Export Call Responses Report 

• Request a Call-In Profile Report 

• Request a Report of Call-In Messages 

• Schedule a Recurring Report 

• Retrieve Message History 


Available SchoolConnects Reports 

This section describes the reports available to you and when you might use them. 

Use the report 

named ... To ... This report can be used ... 

Task Summary 

Notification Task 

Call Attempts By 

Channel 


Hour 


Date 

Template 

Do Not Call 

See a summary of the total 

number of attendance or 

announcement calls sent for 

each school. 

See detailed status of calls 

made for a particular 

message. This is the most 

commonly-requested report. 

See how many calls each voice 

channel made during the 

selected date range. 

See how many call attempts 

were made in each hour 

during the selected date 

range. 

See how many call attempts 

were made each day during 

the selected date range, and 

the status of the attempts 

(Busy, No Answer, and so on). 

See a list of templates 

(Attendance, Announcement, 

Canned Message) in the 

system. You see the properties 

(time settings, priority, and 

call attempts) for each 

template. 

See the telephone numbers 

and student IDs that are on 

the Do-Not-Call list. You also 

see the type of notifications, 

and the comment field. 

By a District administrator to track 

each school’s use on a daily basis, 

and to ensure that all schools are 

using the system as expected. 

As an early warning for telephone 

line problems, or as proof of 

contact to parents. 

For troubleshooting a telephone 

line problem. 


line problem. 


line problem. 

To see a summary of the templates 

defined. 

To obtain a copy of all records in 

the Do-Not-Call list. This is useful 

for backup purposes. 

128 


Use the report 

named ... To ... This report can be used ... 

Notification History 

Do Not Call History 

User 

School 

Call Accounting 

Export Call 

Response 

See the history of messages 

for a particular ID, name, or 

telephone number during the 

selected date range. You see a 

detailed list of every call made 

that meets the selected 

criteria, and the status of each 

call. 

See the history of when a 

record in the Do-Not-Call list 

was filtered from calls. You 

see the data sorted by student 

ID, the name of the student, 

the phone number, and the 

dates that the number 

appeared on a message, but 

was not called. 

See a list of users on your 

system. You see the name of 

the user, the school, their user 

ID, and a list of their 

permissions. 

See a list of schools, and the 

properties of each school. 

See a spreadsheet view of all 

calls for your school or 

district. You see the total call 

time for each school, and see 

what user created each 

message. You can sort this 

report by any column. 

Retrieve the responses from a 

survey or from messages that 

allow the recipient to respond 

with a menu option. 

To find individual history, rather 

than school-wide history. 

To see when a telephone number 

or ID was added to the 

Do-Not-Call list. 

To obtain a copy of all users. This 

is useful for backup purposes. 

To verify whether all schools in 

your district have messages 

recorded or email addresses 

entered for reports. 

To track system usage by school or 

user. 

To retrieve survey responses. 

NOTE: This is the only way to 

retrieve them. 


Status Used in Reports 

If you see this status ... It means ... 

Delivered - Verified 

Delivered - Unverified 

Delivered - Machine 

Busy 

SchoolConnects delivered the message and the person 

who answered pressed a key in response to the message. 

SchoolConnects delivered the message and the person 

who answered did not press any keys in response to the 

message. 

SchoolConnects delivered the message to an answering 

machine. 

SchoolConnects called but received a busy signal. 

No Answer SchoolConnects called by there was no answer after 6 

rings. 

Carrier Rejected 

Bad Connection 

Hangup 

Modem Detected 

Fax Detected 

Filtered 

On an analog line, this means that SchoolConnects called 

but received an Operator-intercept tone indicating a 

problem with the telephone number. On a digital line or 

on a SchoolConnects hosted system, this means that 

SchoolConnects called but received a code from the 

telephone carrier indicating that the call could not be 

delivered. 

SchoolConnects could not get a dial tone on the outgoing 

line. 

SchoolConnects called but the line was disconnected 

(hung up) before SchoolConnects could deliver the 

message. 

SchoolConnects detected a modem answering the call. 

SchoolConnects detected a fax answering the call. 

The call was not made because either the telephone 

number or Student ID is in the Do-Not-Call list. 

130 


PIN Responses Used in Reports 

The following is an explanation of the status you see when a PIN is required to hear the 

message. 

If the call recipient ... The report shows the status as ... 

Enters the PIN 

Presses # 

Hangs up 

Does nothing 

Delivered - Verified 

Hangup, not completed 




Viewing Reports 

There are two ways to view a report: Have it emailed to one or more recipients, or view 

the report online. When you view a list of messages, you can click on the Report icon 

next to any message to see a report for that message. When you click on the Report icon, 

a window appears where you select how you want to receive your report: Via email or 

view it online. 

Email a report 

You can send yourself or others a report. 

STEPS 

1. On the Navigation pane, select Reports. 

2. Click Custom Report. 

The Request a Notification Task Report window appears. 

132 


3. On the Select Report tab, in Report Name, select the type of report you want 

to send out. 


5. In Type of Message, select the type of message you want to report on. 

6. In Task Start Date, specify the start date of the time period for which you 

want a report. 

7. In Task End Date, specify the end date of the time period for which you want 

a report. 

8. In Report Date Format, select the date format to use for the report. 

9. Specify any other applicable options on this tab, and then click the Email 

Report tab. 

The Email Report window appears. 


10. Select the appropriate options, such as whether to send a copy of the report 

to the person who created the message. 

11. If you are sending a district report, specify the district settings. Otherwise, 

specify the school settings. Specify who to send the email to, and who should 

be copied. 

12. Click Email Report. 

134 


View a report online 

STEPS 

1. On the Navigation pane, select Reports. 



3. On the Select Report tab, in Report Name, select the type of report you want 

to send out. 


5. In Type of Message, select the type of message you want to report on. 

6. In Task Start Date, specify the start date of the time period for which you 

want a report. 

7. In Task End Date, specify the end date of the time period for which you want 

a report. 

8. In Report Date Format, select the date format to use for the report. 


9. Specify any other applicable options and then click the Online Report tab. 

The Online Report window appears. 

10. Click Get Report. 

When the report is generated, you see a link to that report. Click the link to 

view the report. This opens a new tab in your browser. You can keep the report 

open and return to the previous window by clicking the SchoolConnects tab 

at the top. Clicking on the Report tab returns you to the report. To close the 

report, locate the tab at the top with the name of the report on it and click the 

small red X. 

136 


Request a Notification Task Report 

The Notification Task Report is the most commonly requested report. It provides a 

detailed status of all calls made for a particular message. 

STEPS 

1. In the Navigation pane, click Reports. 


3. For Report Name, select Notification Task (the default). 

4. For Report Output Format, leave the default at PDF for best results. 

5. Optional: Check Profile Messages Only if you only want to include messages 

launched via telephone. 

6. For School, District users may select all schools or individual schools. Select 

multiple schools by pressing Ctrl while selecting each of the desired schools. 

If you select ALL, you can only select District-level templates in the Message 

Template option below. 

7. For Type of Message, choose the type of message you want to report on. 

8. For Message Template, select a specific template or choose ALL. 

9. For Simplified Report, specify Yes if you want to see the simplified version of 

the report, or No if you want to see the report organized by status. 

10. If you specified No for Simplified Report, for Report Information, specify the 

delivery method to report on. 

11. For Report Data, select what pieces of information to display in the report. 

NOTE: In an Attendance report, only two columns of data can be shown even if 

more were selected. In an Attendance & Emergency report, only three columns of 

data can be shown. 

12. For Sort By, the default is to sort records by student ID within each category. 

You can change to sort by student name or phone number. If you chose 

Simplified Report, you cannot sort by phone number. 

13. For Call Recipient’s Name, choose Student Name or Student & Relative 

Name. If you want the name of the actual recipient for each number displayed, 

select Student & Relative Name. 

14. For Task Start Date and Task End Date, select the date range for the report. 

15. For Display Duplicate Not Contacted Information, select Yes if you want to 

see duplicate numbers that were not called. In cases where there are a lot of 

students that have siblings attending the same school or district, those 

duplicates are not telephoned, and you can remove the duplicates from the 

report. To remove this information from the report, select No. 

16. For Report Date Format, select the date format you prefer for the report. 


17. If you want the report emailed, do the following: 

a Click the Email Report tab and fill in the email information. 

b For Send District and School Report, use the default Yes. This emails a 

copy of the report to each of the email addresses specified in District 

Properties and School Properties. 

c For Send Report To Task Creator, select Yes if you want to ensure that 

the person who created the message receives a copy of the report. The 

default is No, which means that reports are emailed to the email 

addresses specified in the School Properties. 

d In the Reply To field, enter a dummy email account. 

For example, name@domain.com 

e Enter the email address and contents in either the District Settings or 

School Settings. 

f Click Email Report. 

18. If you want to view the report online, click the Online Report tab, and click 

Get Report. 

When the report is available, a link appears and you can click the link to view 

the report. 

138 


Request an Export Call Responses Report 

If you sent out a survey or any message, such as an attendance message, where the call 

recipient can provide input (menu selections, recordings, and so on), you use the 

Export Call Responses Report to find out the results. 

STEPS 




3. In the Report Name drop-down list, select Export Call Responses. 


4. In the Export Output Format field, select the format for the output file. 

Choose from Fixed Field Length, COMMA, or CSV (comma-separated). 

5. In the Include Column Titles field, check the box if you want column titles 

displayed in the report. 

6. In the Notification Type field, select Attendance or Announcement & 

Emergency. 

7. In the Message Template field, choose the message to retrieve responses for. 

8. Specify the start and end dates for the message. 

9. If you want to view the report online, click Online Report, then Get Report. 

Otherwise, skip to the next step. 

10. Click the Email Report tab to have the report emailed to you. 



11. In the Send District and School Report, select Yes if you want both District 

and School reports sent. 

If the call response report is for a district message, under District Settings, 

specify Yes for Email District Report, and enter a district email address in the 

To field. 

If the call response report is for a school message, under School Settings, 

specify Yes for Email School Report, and enter an email address in the To 

field. 


140 


Request a Call-In Profile Report 

This report lists the parameters of each call-in profile. 

STEPS 



3. For Report Name, select Template. 


5. Check Profile Messages Only. 

6. Select All Schools or select a single school as appropriate. 

7. In the Profile Template drop-down list, select the template for which you 

want a report, or select ALL to see a report on all call-in profiles. 

8. Select the date format. 

9. Click the Email Report tab. 

10. Enter the email information required to send the report, and click Email 

Report. 


Request a Report of Call-In Messages 

You can generate a report for any call-in profile messages (launched by calling in to 

SchoolConnects). Because multiple messages can be associated with a single call-in 

profile, it is possible to generate a single report for all messages generated for a single 

profile. 

STEPS 



3. For Report Name, select Notification Task (the default). 


5. Check Profile Messages Only. 

6. Select All Schools or select a single school as appropriate. 

7. In the Profile Template drop-down list, select the template for which you 

want a report, or select ALL to see a report on all call-in profiles. 

8. For Report Data, choose the relevant report data. 

9. For Sort By and Display By, choose how you want the report to look. 

10. For Call Recipient’s Name, choose Student Name or Student & Relative 

Name. If you want the name of the actual recipient for each number displayed, 

select Student & Relative Name. 

11. For Task Start Date and Task End Date, select the date range for the report. 

12. For Display Duplicate Not Contacted Information, select Yes if you want to 

see duplicate numbers that were not called. In cases where there are a lot of 

students that have siblings attending the same school or district, those 

duplicates are not telephoned, and you can remove the duplicates from the 

report. To remove this information from the report, select No. 

13. For Report Date Format, select the date format you prefer for the report. 


15. Enter the email information required to send the report, and click Email 

Report. 

142 


Schedule a Recurring Report 

This topic is only applicable on a local web server machine: It does not apply to sites 

uses SchoolConnectsWeb on a hosted machine. 

You can use the Email Report option to create a configuration file that you can use to 

schedule a recurring report. You select the report options you want and specify to email 

the report. You then use the Windows Scheduled Tasks function to schedule the task, 

as described below. 

You must be able to log in to the computer hosting the Web Server to create a scheduled 

task. 

STEPS 



3. Specify your report options. 



The configuration file is generated and saved to the web server machine. The 

file has a long name specifying the district, the date and time it was created, 

the school (if applicable), and the user name of the person who created it. 

6. Connect to the Web Server machine and locate the configuration file in the 

following directory: 

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\schoolconnects\uploadedfiles\reports 

7. Copy the file to a less crowded location on the Web Server machine, typically: 

svschool\bin\reports 

8. Rename the file to something meaningful, such as abs_reports.txt 

9. Still on the Web Server machine, click Start > Run. 

10. Type tasks and press Enter. 

11. Double-click Add Scheduled Task to launch the Add Scheduled Task wizard. 


13. Browse to svschool\bin\reportemailer.exe. 

Typically, it is in C:\Program Files. 

14. Follow the instructions in the wizard, choosing the days and time that you 

want the scheduled task to run (typically evenings, after 9 p.m. Monday to 

Friday for absence, or evenings after 10 p.m., 7 days a week for 

announcements). 

15. Check Open Advanced Properties for this task when I click Finish. 



17. On the Task tab, the Run command contains the following: 

"C:\Program Files\svschool\bin\reportemailer.exe" 

18. After the second quote, append the path to the configuration file. For 

example: 

...exe" C:\Program~1\svschool\bin\reports\abs_reports.txt 

Ensure you leave a space after the second quote. 

NOTE: You cannot enclose the second path in quotes, and you must use the short 

file name for C:\Program Files (C:Progra~1). The reportemailer.exe 

program does not accept quotation marks around the path to the configuration 

file, and it does not accept a path with spaces. 

19. Save your task. 

144 


Retrieve Message History 

If you want to see a history of calls for a particular student, telephone number, or email 

address, you use the Message History report. You select a date range for the data you 

want and all related messages are displayed online. 

STEPS 


2. Click Message History Report. 

The Request Message History window appears. 

3. In the Type of Message field, select the type of calls you want to retrieve 

history for. 

4. Use the fields provided to select a particular student to see the history of 

messages for that student. Enter values in one or more of these fields to 

narrow the scope: 

• For Student ID, you can enter part or the entire student ID to retrieve 

message history for a particular student. 

• For Student Name, you can enter the student’s last name or the first 

few letters of the last name. You can enter partial information but keep 

in mind that the system looks for a match based on the characters from 

left to right. Because student names often appear in the system as last 


name, first name, if you enter just the student’s first name, it does not 

find a match. 

• For Phone Number, you can enter the student’s telephone number 

beginning with the area code and then the exchange. 

• If you are retrieving email history, for Email Address, enter the email 

address. 

5. Select a date range to search by clicking the calendar next to Message Start 

Date and choosing a start date. Then click the calendar next to Message End 

Date to choose the end of your date range. SchoolConnects always defaults 

to the current date for both start and end dates. 

6. Select Yes for Call History to receive telephone call history, and Yes for Email 

History for a history of emails sent. 

7. Click Get History. 

In the following example, we entered the name Jones and the date range April 1st to 

April 9th: 

After clicking Get History, we receive the following result: 

146 


The ID and full name of the student are returned. If there are multiple matching 

students (for example, multiple students in the school with the last name Jones), you 

see all of the records for one match followed by all of the records for the next match, 

and so on. This report displays all attempts made by SchoolConnects. 


148 


SchoolConnects Reference 

This section contains additional information about various topics. It contains 

descriptions of some of the SchoolConnects features you can use. 

Contents: 

• Address Book Fields and What They Mean 

• What the Message Icons Mean 

• Use School Announcement Settings Option 

• User Permissions 

• The Cascade Calling Feature 

• The Telemarketer Zapper 


Address Book Fields and What They Mean 

Primary Student (Household) Contact Data 

Name 

Description 

Name 

ID 

Home Room 

Language 

Teacher 

Custom Info 1 

Custom Info 2 

PIN 

Special Requirement 

Zapper 

Home Phone 

Home Email 

The name of the student. 

The unique identifier for this student within the school’s 

student information system. 

The name or room number for the student’s home room, 

usually where they start their day. (Some districts traditionally 

use this field for bus route.) 

The primary language spoken in the student’s home or place of 

residence. 

The name of the student’s home room teacher. 

If used, a field available for use however the school or district 

prefers. A common example is bus route. 

If used, a field available for use however the school or district 

prefers. A common example is bus route. 

If applicable, the number that must be entered before telephone 

messages regarding this student can be played. 

Indicates if a PIN is required to listen to messages regarding 

this student. When set to Yes, a value must be entered in the 

PIN field. 

Indicates that this telephone number is known to have a device 

enabled that sends an Out-of-Service tone, which is used to 

discourage telemarketers. These devices have not been sold in 

several years. 

The primary home telephone number for this student and 

usually, the primary home number to contact regarding this 

student. Note that it is possible for this to be a cell phone 

number, if a parent does not have a land line. 

The primary home email address, occasionally for the student, 

but more frequently for the primary parental contact for the 

student. 

150 


Mobile Phone 

Pager 

Alternate Phone 


Extension 

Alternate Email Address 

Address 

City 

Name 

Province/State 

Postal Code/Zip 

Description 

The mobile (cell) telephone number, occasionally for the 

student, but more frequently for the primary parental contact 

for the student. 

This field is no longer used for notifications. 

An alternative telephone number to be called, usually if a 

message cannot be delivered to the home telephone number. 

Frequently, this is the parent’s work telephone number. 

If applicable, the extension number to be requested when 

contacting the alternate telephone number. 

An alternative email address for emailing messages about the 

student. This may be the primary parental contact’s work email 

address, or it may be the email address of an alternative parental 

contact. 

The student’s street address at home. For example, house 

number and street name, or building number, street name, and 

apartment number. 

The city in which the student lives. 

The province or state in which the student resides. 

The postal code or zip code for the location at which the 

student resides. 

Relative Contact Data 

Name 

Student ID 

Name 

Contact Name 

Relationship 

Description 

This is not an input field. This is the unique identifier for the 

student this relative contact data is associated with. 

This is not an input field. This is the name of the student this 

relative contact date is associated with. 

The name of the relative this record applies to. 

The relationship of this relative to the student. For example, 

Grandmother, or Babysitter. 


Name 

Description 

PIN 

Zapper 

Home Phone 

Home Email 

Mobile Phone 

Pager 



Extension 

Alternate Email Address 

Address 

City 

Province/State 

Postal Code/Zip 

If Special Requirement is Yes in the student primary record, 

this is the number that must be entered before telephone 

messages regarding this student can be played. 

Indicates that this telephone number is known to have a device 

enabled that sends an Out-of-Service tone, which is used to 

discourage telemarketers. These devices have not been sold in 

several years. 

The home telephone number for this relative. 

The home email address for this relative. 

The mobile (cell) telephone number for this relative. 

This field is no longer used for notifications. 

An alternative telephone number to be called to contact this 

relative, usually if a message cannot be delivered to the home 

telephone number. Frequently, this is the relative’s work 

telephone number. 

If applicable, the extension number to be requested when 

contacting the alternate telephone number. 

An alternative email address for emailing messages to this 

relative. This may be the relative’s work email address. 

The relative’s street address at home. For example, house 

number and street name, or building number, street name, and 

apartment number. 

The city in which the relative lives. 

The province or state in which the relative resides. 

The postal code or zip code for the location at which the 

relative resides. 

Address Book Buttons 

Import 

The Import button is used to import a new Address Book from an import file, 

replacing the contents of the current Address Book. Typically, this is used to 

import student records from the student information system. 

CAUTION: This procedure should be performed by experienced users of 

SchoolConnects, or under the guidance of Synrevoice Technical Support. 

152 


Clear 

The Clear button is used to erase the entire contents of the Address Book. 

CAUTION: This procedure should be performed by experienced users of 

SchoolConnects, or under the guidance of Synrevoice Technical Support. 

Contact Seq 

This button is used for Cascade Calling. You click Contact Seq to specify the 

order in which to contact relatives and to specify telephone number types. You 

can assign global priorities for different relative codes. You can also set the order 

in which each type of telephone number should be called. 


What the Message Icons Mean 

When you click the 

... 

Select a Message 

check box 

Edit Task Settings 

icon 

Edit Call Details 

icon 

Real-Time Report 

icon 

Email Activity icon 

Voice Server 

Activity icon 

Which looks 

like this ... The following happens ... 

The message is selected. If you want to delete or 

cancel the message, check the box and click the 

appropriate button. 

You see the Settings window for that type of 

message. You can change the expiry date of the 

message, the times for it to call, the priority or 

delivery method, the number of attempts, the 

language, the PIN requirements, and so on. 

You see the Call Details window. Here you can select 

what information you want to view. Click OK to 

display the details of the message, organized by 

student. 

You can request a report that you can view as a PDF 

online, or you can receive the report via email. 

Either option allows you to save a copy of the report 

as a PDF file. 

You can view logs that show whether emails are 

being sent for a message or whether there is a 

problem preventing the emails from going out. 

You see logs indicating whether a message is Active 

(calls are being processed), or whether there is 

something preventing calls from going out, such as 

it is outside the call time for this message, or the 

message is not recorded. 

154 


Use School Announcement Settings Option 

There are two sources of announcement settings: One is at the school level and the 

other is at the district level. In most systems, the default settings are set only at the 

district level. They enable you to send your messages out at the correct times and to 

import text files properly. If you check the Use School Announcement Settings option 

when creating a message, and there are no default settings configured for your school, 

you may not have all the features that you want for your announcement. 

There are situations where it is appropriate to check this box, such as if your school has 

a particular file structure that is different from what the other schools use. 


User Permissions 

User permissions determine what kinds of SchoolConnects objects a user can access or 

modify. 

Permission 

Highest Priority 

Create Message 

Template 

Edit Message 

Template 

Delete Message 

Template 

Create Message 

Edit Message 

Delete Message 

Create User Account 

Modify User 

Account 

Delete User Account 

Create, Edit and 

Delete Contact List 

Do-Not-Call List 

Record Message 

Edit System Settings 

Add, Edit and 

Delete Relationship 

Code 

Description 

Specifies the maximum priority this user can set for a message. For 

example, if you set the permission to Medium, this user can specify 

Low or Medium priority for a message, but not High or Emergency. 

If set to Yes, the user can create new message templates for 

Attendance and Canned messages. 

If set to Yes, the user can modify message templates. 

If set to Yes, the user can delete message templates. 

If set to Yes, the user can create messages. 

If set to Yes, the user can change messages. 

If set to Yes, the user can delete messages. 

If set to Yes, the user can create new user accounts. If set to No, the 

user can only change their own password. 

If set to Yes, the user can modify user accounts. If set to No, the user 

can only change their own password. 

If set to Yes, the user can delete user accounts. If set to No, the user 

can only change their own password. 

If set to Yes, the user can create, modify, and delete contact lists. If 

set to No, the user can see and use contact lists, but cannot create or 

change them. 

If set to Yes, the user can add to or modify the Do-Not-Call list. 

If set to No, the user cannot create announcements with their own 

message. The user can still send out attendance messages and can 

still create announcements from canned messages, 

If set to Yes, the user can modify system settings. 

If set to Yes, the user can modify relationship codes. 

156 


Permission 

Update Address 

Book 

Call-In Profile Setup 

Create and Edit 

Restriction Schedule 

Receive Attendance 

Reports 

Receive 

Announcement 

Reports 

Receive Emergency 

Reports 

Access Student 

Personal 

Information 

Submit to 

Rapidconnects 

Processing 

Override Before and 

After Call Times 

Description 

If set to No, the user cannot modify the contents of the Address 

Book. 

If set to Yes, the user can set up a profile to be able to send a message 

from a telephone. 

If set to Yes, the user can restrict times when messages can be sent, 

or remove an existing restriction. 

If set to Yes, the user can receive attendance reports via email, 

provided their email address is specified as a recipient. 

If set to Yes, the user can receive announcement reports via email, 


If set to Yes, the user can receive Emergency reports via email, 


If set to No, the user cannot view any student contact information or 

receive reports that include student contact information. 

Applicable only if you have a subscription to Rapidconnects. If set to 

Yes, the user can use special features to expedite certain types of 

calls. If set to No, this user cannot launch calls to Rapidconnects. 

If set to Yes, the user can send calls outside of the allowed calling 

times. 


The Cascade Calling Feature 

When setting up any message, you can deliver the message to all contacts, meaning all 

telephone numbers selected for calling, or you can cascade contacts. In the past, 

messages were delivered to all contacts imported. Because it is possible to import many 

telephone numbers per student, often parents received the same message on several 

different telephones. 

Cascade Calling calls all priority 01 numbers, but stops calling additional numbers 

when the message is delivered successfully. 

Contact priorities 

To use Cascade Calling most effectively, it is important to understand how contact 

priorities work. You can assign priorities 01-99 to all contacts in the Address Book, 

where 01 is the highest priority, and 99 is the lowest. 

• The student (household) record in the Address Book is always considered 

Priority 01. This record contains a primary telephone number (usually Home) 

and up to two secondary numbers (Mobile and Alternate). 

• Each student record can also be linked to multiple contacts. Each of these 

contacts may also have up to three telephone numbers. You can assign priorities 

to contacts, either individually, record by record, or globally based on the 

relationship code. To assign priorities globally by relationship code, from the 

Address Book window, click Contact Seq. 

• You can also assign the order in which to attempt each type of telephone number: 

Home, Mobile, or Alternate. To assign an order to telephone number types, from 

the Address Book window, click Contact Seq, then select the Phone Sequence 

tab. 

How cascade calling works 

When you choose cascade calling, SchoolConnects delivers the message to all contacts 

marked with Priority 01. In addition, SchoolConnects also attempts to call all selected 

telephone numbers marked with Priority 02-99 until it delivers the message to either a 

Priority 02-99 number or to a Priority 01 number. 

When a call is delivered to any telephone number, all of the additional non-Priority 01 

numbers associated with the same student are labeled as Cascade Completed. No 

further attempts are made to call non-priority 01 numbers. However, SchoolConnects 

continues to attempt Priority 01 contacts until the message is delivered to all of them. 

Note that one contact in the Address Book may have up to three telephone numbers. 

When SchoolConnects delivers the message to any one of the numbers belonging to a 

158 


Priority 01 contact, the remaining telephone numbers for that contact are marked 

Cascade Completed and no further attempts are made. 

For example, if Mother is a Priority 01 contact and she has a home telephone, a mobile 

telephone, and a work telephone, and SchoolConnects delivers the message to the 

mobile phone, no attempt is made to call Mother’s home or work numbers. If Father is 

also a Priority 01 contact and also has a home telephone, mobile phone, and work 

telephone, even though the message has been delivered to Mother’s mobile phone, 

SchoolConnects still attempts to call Father’s three numbers until the message is 

delivered to one of them. 

The student (household) record in the Address Book is always considered Priority 01. 

This cannot be changed. If only the student Primary and Secondary telephone numbers 

are imported, SchoolConnects attempts all three numbers until the message is 

delivered to one of them. Then it marks the other telephone numbers for that student 

as Cascade Completed and makes no further attempts. 

If only contacts are selected for import and no contact is defined as Priority 01, then as 

soon as the message is delivered to any one of the telephone numbers available, no 

further attempts are made to any of the other telephone numbers for that student. 



Cascade calling sequence 

If Student Primary and Secondary telephone numbers and all relative telephone 

numbers are selected for calling: 

1) The first call attempt is made to the first call sequence telephone number for each 

student in the Address Book. If Call Sequence is not defined, the home phone 

number is attempted first. The mobile or alternate telephone numbers are 

attempted only if the message is not delivered to the home telephone number. 

2) Next attempted is the first call sequence telephone number available for the first 

contact labeled Priority 01. 

3) Then the second or third call sequence telephone numbers available for the first 

priority 01 contact are attempted. If priority 01 contacts have no secondary 

numbers, SchoolConnects starts calling the first call sequence telephone 

numbers for the next priority 01 contact. 

4) If and when all telephone numbers for all priority 01 contacts have been 

attempted but not delivered, SchoolConnects begins calling the next-highest 

priority telephone numbers in the defined Call Sequence order. 

5) In each round, SchoolConnects attempts the highest priority number that was 

not yet attempted or has had the fewest attempts. 


The Telemarketer Zapper 

People can buy devices to connect to their home telephones that block calls from 

automated dialing systems, such as the predictive dialers used by telemarketers. These 

are very simple devices that emit a tone when any call comes in. The tone sounds like 

the beginning of the tri-tone that precedes a message saying the number you are dialing 

is out of service, or that you dialed the number incorrectly. 

Automated dialing systems hang up when they hear this tone and the family at home 

never even hears the telephone ring. This works wonderfully to prevent receiving 

unwanted calls from telemarketers. 

When SchoolConnects hears this zapper tone, it continues to deliver the message. If 

there really is a telemarketer zapper device involved, a person may actually receive the 

call. If this person presses a key to confirm receipt, SchoolConnects reports the call as 

Delivered - Verified. However, if nobody presses a key, the call is reported as Tri-Tone 

Ignored. You should verify and correct all telephone numbers reported as Tri-tone 

ignored. 

160 


A 

Address Book 

choosing recipients from 58 

description of 11 

difference from contact list 26 

field descriptions 154 

household information 12 

icons 


importing new 98 

manually add student to 100 

manually delete a student from 101 

relative contact data 13 

relative fields description 155 

searching for a student in 99 

select a grade 58 

selecting individuals 59 

sending to everybody 58 

student record 12 

updating 98 

announcements 

adding recipients to 73 

changing settings 79 

creating 

from canned message 63 

your own message 46 

creating reusable 82 

emergency 16 

expiry of 20 

listening to sample call 73 

overview 14, 16 

reactivating 78 

reusing 84 

sending again 80 

sending again to same recipients 80 

sending new to same recipients 81 

sending sample emails 74 

stopping 72 

suspending 72 

to all grade 9s 58 

to all students 58 

to entire contact list 60 

to individuals 59, 61 

to list from import file 62 

to subset of contact list 60 

types of 16 

viewing list of recipients 72 

viewing progress of 75 

ways to create 16 

when delivered 16 

attendance messages 

creating template 110 


listening to responses 77 

shortcut 85 

stopping automated 32 

template defaults 114 

C 

call responses 

listening to 77 

call-in messages 

overview of 18 

Call-In Messages report 

obtaining 146 

Call-In Profile report 

obtaining 145 

call-in profiles 

example 19 


reference card 18 

setting up 123 

calling lists 

changing 95 

creating 88, 95, 98, 100, 101, 102, 104 

calling times 

for messages 21 

calls 

restricting 105 

canned message templates 

creating 115 

canned messages 

creating an announcement 63 


template defaults 118 


cascade calling feature 


Change School 


contact lists 

changing 95 

choosing recipients from 60 

creating 88, 95, 98, 100, 101, 102, 104 

difference from Address Book 26 


selecting a subset 60 


selecting entire list 60 

selecting individuals 61 

contacts 

choosing from Address Book 58 

importing from file 

overview 30 

D 

district administrator 

description 28 

permissions 29 

district user 


Do-Not-Call lists 


E 

email times 

overview 22 

emails 

sending sample 74 

Emergency messages 

combined with other messages 16 


preempting other messages 16 

reusing 84 


explanation message 


Export Call Responses report 

obtaining 143 

F 

file specifications 

creating 119 

files 

defining import files 119 

supported file types 30 

G 

global Do-Not-Call lists 31 

H 

Home 


I 

icons 


import files 

defining fields in 119 

mapping fields in 119 

sending to list 62 

supported file types 30 

M 

message expiry 


message history report 149 

message restriction 

types 32 

messages 

about stopping 32 

absence 15 


attendance 15 

attendance template defaults 114 

calling times 21 

cancelling 72 

canned 17 

changing settings 79 

creating attendance template 110 

creating reusable 82 

default period absence 

message text 15 

email times 22 

expiry of 20 

icon description 158 

late 15 

launched by telephone 18 

listening to call responses 77 

listening to sample call 73 

reactivating 78 

restricting 105 

restrictions of 32 

reusing 84 

sending again 80 

sending again to same recipients 80 

sending new to same recipients 81 

sending sample emails 74 

stopping 72 

suppression of 32 

suspending 72 

tardy 15 

types of 14 

types that can be restricted 32 

viewing list of recipients 72 

viewing progress of 75 

working with existing 72 

N 

name message 


Navigation pane 



Need Help option 


Notification Task report 

obtaining 141 

O 

online reports 

obtaining 139 

P 

passwords 

changing 41 

permissions 


phone numbers 

preventing calls to 102 

PIN 

status reports 135 

profiles 

creating 123 


Q 

Quick Attendance 

using 85 

R 

recipients 

viewing list of 72 

relative contact data 


relative contact information 13 

reports 

call history 149 

call-in messages 146 

call-in profile 145 


email history 149 

emailing 136 

export call responses 143 

list of available 132 

message history 149 

notification task 141 

obtaining via email 136 

scheduling recurring 147 

status used in 134 

viewing 136 

viewing online 139 

when PIN is required 135 

Reports option 


restriction schedules 

canceling 106 

changing 106 

creating 105 

reusable announcements 

creating 82 

S 

sample calls 

listening to 73 

overview 73 

sample emails 

sending 74 

school administrator 


school announcement settings 


school code 


school Do-Not-Call lists 


school name recording 

changing 40 

school properties 9 

editing 40 

school user 


SchoolConnects 

web interface 6 

SchoolConnects window 

description 6 

schools 

code 9 

creating 38 


explanation message 9 

name message 9 

properties 9 

Send Message 


Settings option 


status 

used in reports 134 

viewing 75 

student contact data 


student contact information 12 

student contacts 

SchoolConnectsWeb Users’ Guide 167

editing 13 

student data 

importing to Address Book 98 

student information system 

importing to Address Book 98 

student properties 


students 

locating in Address Book 99 

manually add to Address Book 100 

manually delete from Address Book 101 


surveys 

listening to call response 77 

T 

tasks 


viewing recipients 72 

working with 72 

telemarketer zapper 


telephone numbers 


templates 

canned message defaults 118 

creating attendance 110 

creating canned message 115 

U 

user accounts 

changing passwords 41 

creating 43 

deleting 45 


types of 28 

User Manager 


user permissions 


user properties 


users 

adding new 43 

deleting 45 

permissions 160 

V 

View Messages options 


W 

web interface 


weekday call times 21 

weekday email times 22 

weekend call times 21 

weekend email times 22 

Z 

zapper

SchoolConnects - School District 67

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