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EXIT Buyers Plus Realty
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At the Burlington City Riverfront Pomenade July 18-20, 2008

Friday - Golf Outing & Jazz Concert featuring Dave May & DTM Project, Larry Givens, Lanny Hartley and Yvette Freeman.
Tickets $35. Call 609-239-4770

Saturday - Heritage Day Parade & Black Heritage Festival

Sunday - Gospel Celebration featuring local and national artists.
Contact LGR Records 609-702-7272 Ext. 206

BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP - Gone are the days when school employees had to pick up a phone and call every parent, to spread the word about an early school closing or other emergency.

Now the Burlington Township School District has an automated phone calling system, which is capable of contacting thousands of parents in under a half hour.

"We can, in a very short period of time, contact many, many households and (send) many e-mails," Superintendent Chris Manno said.

The system, called SchoolConnects, had its first test Feb. 22, when the school closed due to weather. Manno said the system successfully sent an automated message to thousands of parents, notifying them of the closure.

The school district is asking parents and guardians to update their contact information to make the system more efficient. Manno said parents are welcome to submit several phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Parents can update information on the district Web site, www.burltwpsch.org.

The system cost $7,500 initially for the software and installation, said Walter Spiehs, the district's technology supervisor. The system will be updated annually at a cost of $1,100.

Spiehs said SchoolConnects is capable of calling up to 3,500 households within 20 to 30 minutes.

Manno said he believes the system was well worth the expense.

"I have believed for the past several years that not having a system of this nature has been a real liability to us in terms of our ability to effectively communicate with families in an emergency," he said.

Manno said the system would have come in handy in 2006, when there was a shooting in the afternoon at an apartment complex in the township. The school district did not dismiss students who lived in that neighborhood, and instead held them at school. In that situation, school employees manually called the parents of the affected students. Manno said the automated system could do that job more quickly.

SchoolConnects will also be used to inform parents when their child is absent from school. Parents will receive a recorded message in the morning if their child did not show up, Manno said.

Manno said the school district will continue to use its e-mail alert system and other means of communication. Until the district is confident that the SchoolConnects system is reaching every parent, school closings will continue to be posted on television, radio stations and the school's emergency hot line.