Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Prairie Grove Schools To Develop Mobile App
PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove schools have a district website, email, school phone messenger, several Facebook pages for different organizations and now plan to take the next stop into social media, by creating their own school district App for smartphones and tablets.
“We’re looking at more ways to keep our parents informed,” Superintendent Allen Williams told School Board members at their Sept. 15 meeting. “I know folks have everything on their cellphones and this would be handy.”
The board voted to approve a contract with Ace One Technologies of Jonesboro for the business app. The company will design and build the mobile app for $2,500 and maintain and update the website, manage contents and conduct routine audits for $65/month. For extensive changes, the cost would be $45/hour.
Jerry Coyle, board vice president, was acting president that night and excused himself from the room during discussion. His daughter, Kendra is a sales representative for Ace One Technologies and would serve as Prairie Grove’s sales representative.
The board adopted a resolution entering into the contract, showing that it was aware of the relationship between Jerry Coyle and his daughter. The resolution states that the district technology director checked into other vendors and Ace One offered the best product for the price.
According to Ace One’s proposal, an app could provide some of the following information for school patrons: school calendar, news, directions and maps to the school, the ability to check grades, school pages, events, notifications, such as school closings, and a click to call function. Other possibilities include social feeds from Facebook, Twitter or email, photos, school menus and the ability to contact the school.
Once the company builds the platform for the app, the district can decide what information it wants to include on it, Williams said. On the front end, the company will set it up but technology staff will have the ability to make changes or add information as needed.
Shawn Witt, technology director, said a mobile app will increase communication.
“A app is a great way to do it,” Witt said. “This will make an interactive application to simplify data for our users. People can go to one place to see what’s going on.”
He said the district’s goal is to have the app in use by Christmas before inclement weather hits. The free app will be available for Android and IOS smartphones.
Witt said school officials are still discussing what will be available on the app but indicated information will include the school calendar, maps, push notifications for weather-related announcements and other school events and tools so that patrons can call or email the school.