The following letter is from the school guidance counselors at Albany High School. It was mailed to students and families on Sept. 15.
Dear Families,
We send warm greetings. Throughout high school there are many moments to celebrate. It is often challenging, though, to keep up with the necessary details to ensure that the path to graduation and transition to college and career go smoothly. To that end, we are pleased to announce a tool that our department will be using to communicate with students.
The Albany High School Counselors have partnered with a company called Signal Vine to enable us to exchange text messages with students. We will continue to use conventional methods of distributing information (such as morning announcements, email, letters home, website postings, School Messenger, etc.). Nonetheless, research has proven that kids are much more likely to attend to text messages than other methods of outreach.
We will be asking students for their cell phone numbers through our Guidance Google classrooms. Participation is voluntary and students can opt out at any time. However, we do encourage all students to take advantage of this opportunity to stay connected and get reminders about important events. As it is a two-way system, students will have the ability to reach counselors via text with questions as well.
Albany High School administration will also have accounts through this system and be able to communicate important information to students. Their messages will come from a different phone number, making it easy for students to know with whom they are communicating. We ask you to encourage your student to sign up for Signal Vine text messaging.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
AHS School Counselors
518-475-6260
