Kostan: No phone calls until info updated

LYNN-Superintendent Nicholas Kostan said Wednesday that he has no plans of using the Connect Ed phone service to announce school cancellations until he can be sure that the system’s phone number database is accurate.Kostan was responding to a small group of upset parents who complained Monday that the department did not use its reverse phone service to notify them that school was cancelled. As a result, some parents say they did not know to keep their children home.Connect Ed is a reverse phone service that plays pre-recorded messages and announcements to keep parents up to date the goings on in the schools. Individual principals often use the service to make announcements on special events or report cards, and Kostan has used it himself to announce changes to public meetings and other school policy.The program was originally designed as a security measure, and a way to let parents know of potential dangers in and around the schools, or details of lockdown situations, if necessary.Kostan says the service works very well, but he is hesitant to implicate it for the use of announcing school cancellations because of the early hour that the calls are placed.”If a principal makes a call about an event, it comes in around 4 p.m. or in the afternoon sometime, then it’s just like a telemarketer, people just hang up,” he said. “But when you are dealing with cancellations, it is early, people are upset they are being woken up at 6 a.m., and they are calling here very angry asking to be removed from the list.”It is difficult for the School Department to keep on top of phone number changes, because if a family moves and changes their phone number, they do not always notify the child’s school. If the school is not notified, the next person who receives that phone number will receive the Connect Ed calls until they ask the school to remove the number from the list.While Kostan says he is not opposed to using the phone system in the future, he just does not feel comfortable implementing it until he is sure the database is up to date. Until then, parents have a variety of options in finding out whether school has been cancelled.Kostan has an extensive notification list, including all local news channels, which run school closings on a ticker throughout snowstorms, and local radio stations.The information is also posted on the Lynn Public Schools Web site, www.lynnschools.org, along with www.itemlive.com.