LPS is working to create a new communications system to help send messages to the community, including through a new smartphone app.
The Lincoln Board of Education on Tuesday considered the approval of a three-year, $585,580 subscription agreement with Apptegy, a school communications company based in Arkansas, for its unified messaging platform.
LPS currently uses a multi-tiered messaging system that uses different methods for communication, such as mass notifications, the LPS website and social media outreach, each of which is managed individually.
Through Apptegy, however, each facet would instead be found all in one place, streamlining the process for district staff who are updating district messaging and making it easier for those looking for district information.
“When we look at unified messaging, we go from a system of modules to a modular system,” said Kirk Langer, chief technology officer for the district. “It brings all of these different pieces together.”
The agreement will also allow LPS to address some of its longtime communications needs, like a districtwide app and a new messaging system for staff members to connect with students and families directly.
Through Apptegy, the district hopes to launch an official LPS app where things such as announcements, calendars, links, forms and district information can live, giving families and community members a single source for LPS messaging, according to Mindy Burbach, executive director of communications.
A timeframe for when an app might be launched has yet to be determined.
The district would also be able to implement a two-way messaging system to allow staff to send messages to individual parents or students and give them the ability to respond back.
LPS has been working to introduce a two-way messaging system in the district for more than a decade.
“We recognize that everybody has a different preference on how they receive their communications and how they best interact with the school,” Burbach said. “This is just one more way for us to ensure that the messages are getting across multiple platforms, and we’re reaching those families in a way that they prefer to get contacted. And I think it’s just going to make us more efficient as a staff, as well.”
Additionally, Apptegy would help the district better ensure its communications systems are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, a goal district officials plan to accomplish by April 2026 in accordance with a new ADA rule requiring all public school districts serving more than 50,000 people to ensure any digital content is compliant.
The messaging system change will also allow LPS to create a standard school newsletter structure.
If LPS were to continue using the same, unchanged system for the next three years, the district estimates it would pay an estimated $525,000 in total. If district technology staff were to build its own system, including the app, two-way messaging system and newsletter format, it would cost $1.44 million, according to district estimates.
By buying a subscription to Apptegy, which will aid the district in reaching all of its messaging goals, the district would pay $585,580 — approximately $854,420 less than building — over the course of the three-year, extendable agreement.
“It’s a path. It’s a traversal, it’s a journey. They’re not going to do it for us, but, boy, they sure give us a good path, clean path, to make our ascent,” Langer said.
The board will vote on the measure at its next meeting Oct. 14.
Reach Jenna Ebbers at 402-473-2657 or jebbers@journalstar.com.
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Jenna Ebbers
K-12 education reporter
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