How Chartiers Valley Primary School Found Consistency With Simplified Communications

In 2020, Chartiers Valley Primary School, a public primary school located in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, employed a staggered instructional schedule to ensure that all students

received an adequate, safe education during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this year of immense upheaval, managing this instructional model proved to be time-consuming and inefficient and interfered with educators’ ability to provide educational consistency. CVPS turned to SchoolStatus Connect to streamline communication across instructional platforms and ensure that students and their families had access to the same, high-quality information and resources.

Unexpected Adjustment

After the unexpected onset of the pandemic, first-grade teacher Ellen Zissis had to make adjustments to instructional models to ensure that students received adequate support and instruction. But the tools she was working with were less than ideal. Zissis was managing students on a “two days on, one day off” system, where students received in-person instruction twice a week, engaged in remote learning two days a week, and were given Fridays off. Understandably, families and educators had a hard time keeping up with the confusing, hybrid schedule.

Prior to COVID-19, Zissis said she communicated with Families once weekly on average, but with the revised staggered schedules and potential for disruption, Zissis said she felt it was more important to over-communicate all the information Families and students needed to know. So she made a point to keep Families up to date on their students’ progress every day.

The Solution

Zissis and other teachers at CVPS used SchoolStatus Connect to augment their family-teacher communications, enabling them to easily text, call, and email—all from within the SchoolStatus platform. To stay organized and connected to families, Zissis separated family members into groups based on their children’s in-person and online schedules. That way, she didn’t have to worry about leaving someone out of the loop.

Zissis said that a key part of SchoolStatus Connect’s effectiveness is that Families can use it in a way that works best for them, including downloading the app to their cell phones. “If I get a text, I’ll look at it right away. If I get an email, I might miss it. The fact that Families can customize how they get messages so they see them right away is amazing.”

Connection

As of the 202-21 school year, 100% of families at CVPS connected to educators’ classrooms to receive regular communications using SchoolStatus Connect. Zissis said she appreciated seeing how grateful families were to be able to engage in streamlined, clear communication.

She said SchoolStatus Connect was an effective organizational tool for students. As an example, before her students went home after in-person learning, she took photos of their papers and then shared them with family members through the SchoolStatus Connect platform. The next day, if one of her students forgot or lost their homework, they could recover the papers and hand assignments in on time.

 “Everyone wins when you stay in the loop, and SchoolStatus Connect really helped me make that happen while also saving me time,” said Zissis.

By implementing SchoolStatus Connect’s all-in-one communication platform, students were able to adapt to the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that minimized disruption to student learning and streamlined family-teacher communication. During a time of great uncertainty, SchoolStatus offered the school community a vital way for families to stay engaged in their students’ learning.

To learn more about how SchoolStatus Connect can help your district engage more families and create a positive learning environment in schools, contact our team.