Remind is excited to celebrate our school partners and the impact they’ve had implementing Remind on a school or district-wide level. In this series, we’ll share more about their experiences and the results they’ve achieved.
Immediately after joining Groton Elementary School as principal, Kent Maslin's goal was to improve school communication.
Why? Groton's strategy relied on take-home folders, email, and a school notification system, which wasn't efficient. It was especially frustrating in urgent situations, like snow days, when it took over an hour for the school notification system to autodial parent phone numbers.
“Parents are trying to move on with their day,” Kent says. “Finding out they have to keep their kids home right before school starts creates a major disruption.”
The biggest challenge was that parents had no way to engage with the school. Take-home folders got lost in backpacks, email wasn't accessible to the entire community, and autodialed phone calls went straight to voicemail. This was unacceptable for Kent, who prides himself on customer service.
“I like to think of parents as our customers,” he says. “It helps me remember that I'm here to give them the best experience I can.”
When Kent found out about Remind Hub, he appreciated the efficiency of the technology and the opportunity to improve communication. Hub offered features that relieved Groton's biggest pain points, allowing the school to send handouts and important information directly to parents' phones—and track which families received the information.
Kent calculated that communicating with Remind Hub would end up being cheaper than the paper he used to send memos home, which sealed the deal.
"I see Remind Hub as cost savings, not an additional expense."
Aside from saving money, Remind Hub helps facilitate meaningful, two-way communication with with parents. “The future is untapped,” Kent says. “We're able to take advantage of a cultural norm—getting information on your phone—to communicate with parents in real ways.”
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* ppcUrlCookiePart1 and ppcUrlCookiePart2 must be called, see bottom of script
* update ppcUrlCookiePart2 and ppcUrlCookiePart2 to match your querystring and form field names
*
*/
//Leave this as true to always use querystring values if they exist, if no querystring will attempt to get cookie values
var ppcUseLatestValues = true; //set this to false to use cookie values if they exist (if false, will not check querystring first).
//function to grab params from cookie
function getCookie(param_name) {
var i, x, y, cookie = document.cookie.split(";");
for (i = 0; i < cookie.length; i++) {
x = cookie[i].substr(0, cookie[i].indexOf("="));
y = cookie[i].substr(cookie[i].indexOf("=") + 1);
x = x.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");
if (x == param_name) {
return unescape(y);
}
}
}
//function to create cookie
function setCookie(param_name, value, exdays) {
var exdate = new Date();
exdate.setDate(exdate.getDate() + exdays);
//CHANGE DOMAIN BELOW TO MATCH SITE
var c_value = escape(value) + ((exdays == null) ? "" : "; domain=remind.com; path=/; expires=" + exdate.toUTCString());
document.cookie = param_name + "=" + c_value;
}
//function to check if cookie exists and, if so, run the setCookie function
function checkCookie(param_name, param_url_name) {
var param_value = getCookie(param_name);
if ((param_value != null && param_value != "" && param_value != "undefined") && ppcUseLatestValues == false) {
//this means the param name/value pair exists - and we don't want to use latest
}
else {
//this means the param name/value pair does not exist - so create it
//grab values from URL
var pageURL = window.location.search.substring(1);
var URLVariables = pageURL.split('&');
for (var i = 0; i < URLVariables.length; i++) {
var parameterName = URLVariables[i].split('=');
if (parameterName[0] == param_url_name) {
//filter out "#" in case that is in the last URL param
param_value = parameterName[1].split("#")[0];
}
}
if (param_value != "undefined" && param_value != "" && param_value != null) {
//create cookie
setCookie(param_name, param_value, 365);
}
}
}
//function to setup the parameters and save the cookie values
function ppcUrlCookiePart1() {
//setup list/array of parameters desired. names on right should match querystring names
var param_names = new Array(
'ppcSource;utm_source',
'ppcMedium;utm_medium',
'ppcCampaign;utm_campaign',
'ppcAdGroup;utm_adgroup',
'ppcKeyword;utm_term',
'ppcContent;utm_content'
);
//loop through all params and create cookie
for (i = 0; i < param_names.length; i++) {
var param_object = param_names[i].split(";");//split out the cookie name and url name
var param_name = param_object[0];
var param_url_name = param_object[1];
//start the cookie creation
checkCookie(param_name, param_url_name);
}
}
//function to grab cookie params
function mGetCookie(param_name) {
var i, x, y, cookie = document.cookie.split(";");
for (i = 0; i < cookie.length; i++) {
x = cookie[i].substr(0, cookie[i].indexOf("="));
y = cookie[i].substr(cookie[i].indexOf("=") + 1);
x = x.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");
if (x == param_name) {
return unescape(y);
}
}
}
//function to check if cookie exists and, if so, fill out the corresponding form fields
function mCheckCookie(param_name, param_field_name) {
var param_value = mGetCookie(param_name);
if (param_value != null && param_value != "" && param_value != "undefined") {
try
{
var obj1 = document.getElementsByName(param_field_name);
obj1[0].value = param_value;
return true;
}
catch (err)
{
return false;
}
}
return false;
}
//function to setup parameters and begin cookie value insertion into marketo form
function ppcUrlCookiePart2() {
//setup list/array of parameters desired. names on right should match hidden form field names
var param_names = new Array(
'ppcSource;utm_source__c',
'ppcMedium;utm_medium__c',
'ppcCampaign;utm_campaign__c',
'ppcAdGroup;utm_adgroup__c',
'ppcKeyword;utm_term__c',
'ppcContent;utm_content__c'
);
//loop through all params and create cookie
for (i = 0; i < param_names.length; i++) {
var param_object = param_names[i].split(";");//split out the cookie name and url name
var param_name = param_object[0];
var param_field_name = param_object[1];
//start the cookie creation
mCheckCookie(param_name, param_field_name);
}
}
//ppcUrlCookiePart1 will grab values from the querystring and save them in cookies
ppcUrlCookiePart1();
//ppcUrlCookiePart2 will retrive values from the cookies and populate the hidden form fields - should be in the onload
try
{
//attempt for Marketo form
MktoForms2.whenReady(function (form){
ppcUrlCookiePart2();
});
}
catch (err)
{
//if error on Marketo form, try loading for regular form.
ppcUrlCookiePart2();
}