eSchool Systems LLC provides the eSchoolnewsletter service in 23 Maryland counties. Parker started the eSchoolnewsletter in 2002 for Lisbon Elementary School as a concerned father of four.
"Doug Parker has been phenomenal to work with. So much of what he does is for [free]," Caplan said. "It's because it's important to him, and that's sometimes hard to find in the business world."
As part of the effort to deliver emergency messages more quickly, Parker added two servers last month.
"The first snow [Dec. 5] caught us off-guard. [E-mail notification] wasn't as fast as we would have liked," Parker said.
The time window between the decision to close schools and notifying parents is eSchool Systems' greatest challenge, Parker said.
To facilitate the process, the information is also posted on the Web site. "We also have a page where we manually put up the schedule. You don't have to wait for an e-mail," Parker said.
Even without the recent improvements, the eSchoolnewsletter has proved a valuable method of school-home communication.
"Overall, this is a pretty powerful tool," Caplan said.
"Before we had an e-mail setup like this, we'd send messages home in hard copy. Parents wouldn't get the information until their students were home. Sometimes it would just end up in the bottom of the backpack."
Caplan added that a school closing or delay "was the toughest situation."
"We relied on the media to announce emergency information, but if a parent didn't have the radio or TV on, they had no idea," she said.
However, Caplan said e-mail and text messages also have limitations.
"Even though we have 87 percent of families signed up, there are still families who don't have access to computers. We're always looking for other ways to reach all our families," she said. "We don't want to leave anyone out simply because they don't have the technology available to them."
Caplan added: "Be it student progress or safety, we are always looking for opportunities to improve our communication."
To sign up for the eSchoolnews letter or text messaging: www eschoolnewsletter.com.
