May 21, 2021

Dear Parent/Guardian,
The information we are sending today relates to our transition from Ohio Alerts to School Messenger as our main communication system for our district. As we’ve previously stated, Ohio Alerts will be expiring next month due to circumstances beyond our control. It is important to follow the directions provided to ensure you and your family correctly receive our school messages. This same information will also be placed on our website www.bathwildcats.org under District News. The goal in this first step is to have you input your information into OneView so that you are ready to “Opt-In” on Tuesday June 1st. On June 1st, you will receive a text message from 67587 asking you if you want to receive text messages from Bath Local Schools and to choose Y to confirm. We will continue to send you more information about School Messenger through the summer in preparation for next school year. If you should have any questions, please contact Missy Vandemark in Administration at 419-221-0807 ext. 6147.

Sincerely,

Rich Dackin Superintendent

SCHOOL MESSENGER

Bath Local Schools will be using SchoolMessenger as our primary source of communication in the 2021-22 school year. The time is NOW to get our parents, guardians and students signed up to receive communications via SchoolMessenger.

To be sure you will receive future communications, you will need to update your students Demographic & EMA form in OneView. *Note: You will need to repeat the following steps for each of your students. Simply toggle between your student(s) from the dropdown on the right, listing each of your student(s).

STEP #1: Log into your parent account (you can access your OneView Parent Portal through our website: www.bathwildcats.org)

•	Select Returning Student Forms (to the right is where you toggle between your students)

Student name

Grade level

STEP #2: Select the Back to School 2021-22 Student Demographic and EMA form

STEP #3: Review Part One: Student Demographic Info. The Student Cell Number field will need cleared – it is currently housing a parent phone number since we have not collected student cell numbers in the past. Entering your student’s cell # here will allow students to receive communications from the school. If your student does not have a cell number, please clear this field and leave it blank. **Do not leave a parent phone number in this field**.

Student name

Student address

STEP #4:  PLEASE pay attention to Part 3 and Part 4 of your EMA form. The phone numbers entered here are what will be used for SchoolMessenger to send communications to parents/guardians.

•	Parent Guardian #1 and #2 should be filled in for both parent/guardians to be able to receive communications from SchoolMessenger.
•	Relation to Student: Two Parents is the correct choice for married biological parents. One Parent is the correct choice for divorced/separated parents. If you have shared parenting, please select one parent, and uncheck the box “same as student” so you can enter a second parent address.

INCORRECT FORMAT:

Please remove any information formatted as Mom/Dad entered in the Parent/Guardian #1 line.

CORRECT FORMAT:

Separate them into Parent Guardian #1 and Parent Guardian #2, as shown below.

STEP #5: In a true emergency, such as a lockdown, or campus evacuation, those listed in Part Four: Emergency Contacts, will receive communication from the school.

This is also the time to review your student's transportation needs for the 2021-22 school year. Please look over the transportation fields in Part Seven. If your student is not riding the bus, please remove any old transportation information. If information is correct, please indicate an effective date of 8-1-21 to arrange transportation for next school year. You will not be able to submit your form without this date.

SchoolMessenger requires that you give your permission to receive our communications. To do this, we will be sending out a mass “opt-in” campaign June 1st. The text alert will come from the number 67587. You will simply reply to this text with a “Y” or “YES” to grant the necessary permission to receive SchoolMessenger notifications. That is it! You can proactively text “Y” or “YES” to 67587 before the mass opt-in campaign, and you may also use this option if you miss the mass opt-in campaign on June 1st. *Please note: anyone who has already granted permission to SchoolMessenger will NOT get a mass opt-in text message on June 1st. Some area local schools and hospitals use the same company, so you may have already granted your permission to SchoolMessenger (Elida Schools, Apollo, etc). We will practice many times using both Ohio Alerts and SchoolMesseger to be sure all are correctly receiving our communications.

We are rolling out SchoolMessenger in phases. We are currently focusing on our parents, guardians, and students: all information that is being collected in your OneView Parent Portal. For anyone not listed in your OneView Parent Account, we will be sending out future instruction to allow outside family members, babysitters, etc. to opt-in to our communication services. We will also send out more information in the near future about the free app for SchoolMessenger!

If you have any questions, please contact the Administration Office: 419-221-0807 ext. 6147