Poplar Bluff Middle School began using a new after-school dismissal system called KIDaccount in October. One month later, school administrators say safety has effectively been enhanced but many parents interviewed are displeased with the change.
Dr. Brad Owings, middle school principal, said KIDaccount was intended to ease confusion and enhance accountability aspects of the daily dismissal routine. Nearly 350 parent pick-up students out of a total middle school enrollment of 1,202 were impacted by the new program.
"(KIDaccount) is a student dismissal system that is automated and helps with our large number of kids," Owings said. "It's a way of keeping track of who is picking up students, so it has a safety feature. My hope is to implement this with the bus riders and the walkers so we know who everybody who leaves our building went home with."
The program cost Poplar Bluff R-1 around $7,000 to get started, Owings said, and will see an annual subscription fee of about $5,400. KIDaccount also allows students to wait for their rides inside the building in a specified holding area until each name is called, which eliminates their exposure to the weather and vehicles during the process.
"When we first opened (in Sept. 2016), one of the biggest complaints we had from parents was that their kids had to sit out on the concrete to be picked up," Owings said. "So if it was 90 degrees outside, that was uncomfortable, or if it was raining, it was wet."
Owings said he began searching for a solution to keep students inside while maintaining the ability to notify them promptly when their rides arrive. Previously, school officials used walkie-talkies for any communication needs, which Owings said was not user-friendly and often led to miscommunication.
"When you've got three, four or five people on a walkie-talkie, you couldn't hear," Owings said. "It was a mess."
To use KIDaccount, each student was given two bar coded cards. Upon arrival in the afternoons, the parent or designated pick-up person shows the card to the on-duty teacher, from the crosswalk area or while in their vehicles, who verifies their identity and scans the card. The scanner sends a message to a large screen set up in one of three student holding areas. The students whose names pop up are then sent to stand in line with their group until released. The process repeats until all parent pick-up students have left the building.
After talking to two separate groups of parents at the crosswalk Tuesday, then approaching three people seated in their vehicles, only one person agreed to go on record for the newspaper about KIDaccount. The majority of parents either would not share an opinion because they claimed to not want to speak against the school or said they feel the system is inconvenient, the cards are a hassle and that it forces parents to stand outside longer in the weather without providing adequate shelter under which to stand. They also felt the money spent on the program could be better used on academic programs within the school and that the same effect could be achieved for free by assigning each grade level a pick-up lane and name tags.
Erin Sanders picks up her son every day at the middle school crosswalk. She said she supports the program because of its safety features.
"I like it because we know who's picking our kids up each day," she said. "This way we know they're not just running out and going with whoever."
Sanders said she thinks KIDaccount makes the pick-up process take longer, which is the only negative she can find with the new system.
"It has definitely added more time to the pickup, and sometimes that can be harder because I have another child at the junior high," she said. "So, it's just a matter of getting to the places quick enough."
Office staff said KIDaccount has eased daily challenges faced when delivering messages to students about changes to their after-school plans. If a parent calls to tell their child to ride the bus home instead of waiting to be picked up, secretaries can now submit a note into the KIDaccount system and all middle school teachers can see the change.
"This has really cut down on how much we have to interrupt classes in the afternoons," said secretary Taylor Armes. "Before, we'd have to look up the student, call and interrupt class to deliver the message. If the student wasn't in the room, we had to call around until we found them. It was definitely a hassle. It took a little bit to learn how to use it, but KIDaccount has helped us out a lot."
Owings said if other schools in the district start using KIDaccount software, the middle school's annual $5,400 fee will be reduced to about half. He also said any parents who need to add additional cards may contact the office and request as many as needed for $2 each.