A new communications system that links the Oxford schools with parents passed its first test last week in an unfortunate and unplanned test of its effectiveness.
A three-car crash last Wednesday on Route 67 resulted in the death of 23-year-old Matthew Mihalcik of Beacon Falls. The road was closed while police investigated the accident near the intersection of Governors Hill Road.
The new communications system, called Code Ed, was able to get messages out to the parents of students who would have been riding buses, said Interim Superintendent of Schools James A. Connelly.
“We put out an emergency alert based on the preliminary design we had in Code Ed and people got their message,” Connelly told the Board of Education during a meeting Tuesday night at Oxford High School.
Parents who received the notification contacted the Valley Indy through e‑mail about the notification. Another parent posted info about the message on the Valley Indy Facebook wall.
It is the third communication system in use this year in Oxford. A contract with a service called Alert Now was canclled June 30, with the intent of joining in with a town service called Code Red, but Code Ed was found to be a better product for the school district, Connelly said.
Code Ed is owned by the same company that offers Code Red. A number of towns and cities in the region use these services.
The advantage of Code Ed is that it has an up-to-date database of cellphone numbers, home numbers and emails for parents, and can send messages to small groups — for example, the parents of a certain sports team’s members. The system can notify parents that buses are running late on the way home from a game.
The accident last week showed it took only three minutes to get messages out to all parents with children affected by the road closings.
School personnel are being trained in its use and it should be fully operational by November, Connelly said.
Also, there are steps taken to make sure the information does not fall into the wrong hands.
“We are very strict with access to the Code Ed database so there is nothing to worry about with privacy,” Connelly said.
