NHPS Turns To New App For Parent-School Communication

The city’s public school district plans to adopt a new app-based communication platform — which includes translation services that will allow parents to reach out in the language of their choice — in a bid to improve how students’ guardians and school staff stay in touch.

That new communication platform is called Apptegy. New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Supt. Madeline Negrón and Assistant Supt. Viviana Camacho spoke up about the app and how the district chose to adopt it during Monday’s latest biweekly Board of Education meeting. 

NHPS currently uses a platform called Parent Link for parents to hear from the district about school- and student-related updates. Negrón described that communication tool as ​“outdated.” She pointed out that Parent Link does not offer two-way communication features for parents to get the most engagement with school staff. 

Negrón said improving family and community engagement is part of her four top priorities for the district. She said she hopes for a stronger two-way communication channel to reduce confusion for families and enhance overall engagement. 

Apptegy, she added, better supports families’ language barriers by providing translation services for staff and guardians to reach out in their preferred languages. Click here to see how Apptegy allows users to write messages in their preferred language. The app then translates the messages to the receiver’s preferred language. 

“This will allow us to streamline our virtual communication by centralizing everything in one location for simple access, therefore improving efficiencies,” Negrón said. 

Apptegy also has better digital security to prevent hacking of sensitive data shared between staff and parents, Negrón said, and is a more efficient use of the district’s limited funding for such resources. 

Also during Monday’s presentation, Camacho broke down the process that the district went through to select Apptegy as its new communication platform. It was done with a committee of 11 district staffers. 

The process began last June when feedback from 81 principals and assistant principals was collected to learn what issues they had with Parent Link and what they are looking for in a effective communication platform. 

In September, five new platforms were presented as options for the district. Those included Final Site, Jupiter, Apptegy, Power School, and Parent Square. 

In November, a tech fair was hosted allowing teachers, students, and school stakeholders to interact with each platform and provide their input. NHPS collected a total of 147 responses — including from 6 assistant principals, 8 principals, 8 central office administrators, 27 staff, 3 paraprofessionals, 36 students, 153 parents, and 111 teachers.

In January, the district put out a Thought Exchange survey for additional community feedback. That survey closed Monday evening, and Camacho said Apptegy rose to the top of the community’s selection process. 

The top three priorities shared by stakeholders was a need for privacy and accessibility, language translation, and direct communication through calls or text rather than having to navigate a website for information. 

Camacho said Apptegy will allow for mass communication text, calls, and emails, two-way communication between parents and teachers, and campus/school-specific information to be disbursed to families. 

For example, Camacho said, if a parent has children who attend two different schools in the district, they will be able to request communication and updates from only those two schools. 

Implementation for the program is expected to begin next school year district spokesperson Justin Harmon told the Independent Wednesday. He also explained that the district’s current allocation of $136,826 for communication platforms Parent Link and Hootsuite will be repurposed to purchase Apptegy. It will also cost an additional $19,000 for a one-time set up charge for the platform. Once implemented Harmon said in total the district will be spending $10,000 less per year for communication cost. 

NHPS will next develop guidelines for the two-way communication platform through a subcommittee that will include members of the New Haven Federations of Teachers. The district will also offer training for the app this spring.. 

Click here to watch the full presentation and here to view the PowerPoint. 

Parent: Communication Breakdown Over Covid "F"

Also during Monday’s school board meeting, district leaders heard from Truman School parent Curtis Charles who shared about his experience with the school’s communication procedures. On Nov. 18, he said his son contracted Covid and was out for three days, causing him to miss a science course assessment. It wasn’t until February when he received his son’s report card that he learned his son was given a F for his final grade.

When he reached out, he learned his son had missed two assessments and an opportunity to make up one of them during a lunch period. ​“But as a parent, I didn’t get any communication by the school. I didn’t have any idea until I saw the report card,” he said. 

Charles asked the district why as a parent nothing was communicated to him before report cards were finalized when the first assessment was missed back in November. ​“November, December, January, February, no one said anything. Obviously this is a good student, my son gets A’s, B’s, and an occasional C because he struggles sometimes. But never this F,” he said. 

He noted that he does recognize he should’ve taken more initiative as a parent but also explained that at the time he was dealing with a personal medical concern. 

“I accept responsibility of that but I did expect a process in place to look at a B student in that subject, never going lower than that, to be able to identify an F during the process,” he said.

He concluded that his son was able to make up his grade but still wondered ​“how did it happen and how can it not happen again?”