CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield Area School District is looking to ramp up security with an app that will improve communication during active shooter and other emergency situations.
At Monday night’s school board committee meeting, Superintendent Terry Struble reported the district would like to implement the VOLO messaging system.
According to its Web site, VOLO’s Active Shooter Awareness Program combines the newest technology with proven emergency messaging systems that are specifically tailored for use by schools and universities.
By combining VOLO’s web communications platform with its state-of-the-art VOLO Touch mobile app, it gives administrators, staff and law enforcement the tools they need for awareness, communication and monitoring during the most critical situations.
Struble said the messaging system will arm the district’s staff with the ability to launch a variety of different panic buttons with the press of a button.
He said scenarios can also be customized to instantly contact as many people as necessary including staff, administrators and the school resource officer.
Struble said messages can be sent via SMS (Short Message Service), voice call, e-mail, push notification and desktop popup all at once from the press of a button.
He said system administrators can create as many different panic buttons as they want for virtually any situation from alerting to an active shooter to requesting a school nurse on the playground or a custodian for cleanup.
Through the program, he said staff can check in to communicate their safety status and also view a pin-pointed location of the critical event.
Struble said because VOLO is based in Florida, the district’s solicitor is working with the company to iron out language in the agreement that will pertain specifically with Pennsylvania school concerns.
Struble said the agreement will be brought to the school board for consideration at a future meeting and possibly as early as next week.