Each new year presents the promise of endless possibilities. As we prepare our mind and body for 2018 today and fuel the new wind beneath our wings to carry us higher, let’s first spend some time looking back at 2017, to which we just bid goodbye to, and how far we’ve come.
Happy Customers
Technology is a tool, it’s the humans at the control panel that make all the difference. As an education technology company, our goal is to make parent communication easier for our schools.
We added many new tools and wows in our platform in 2017 and our customer success team worked with you to make sure you understand them easily with:
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Monthly Feature Webinars
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Up-to-date self help content and videos
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A special ‘What’s New’ section
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ParentSquare Posters and Flyers
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Email, Chat and Phone support responding to all issues quickly
Our own growth is the best compliment of the work that we do for our schools. This year we are proud to start working with one of the top 25 districts in the country 🎉.
Product Improvements
We ran a “Spend your money on what you need” campaign with our top schools to help prioritize what to build next. Based on what you asked for, we had many big feature additions this year along with 100s of little improvements.
Notable improvements include:
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Online Payments
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Simple Forms and Permission Slips
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Two-Way Translation for messaging with non-english-speakers
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Administrative Dashboard with downloadable data reports
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Send Urgent Alerts with a few clicks on mobile
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Share ParentSquare Posts on Facebook and Twitter
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Weekly Email with a snapshot of how your school communicated
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New Post Editor with flexible formatting and inline images for newsletters
Marketing and Events
We made some rock-solid marketing additions and attended some great events this year, facilitating growth, and allowing us to meet with peers, share insights about the product and listen to customers.
Here are some exciting additions and notable conferences we attended:
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FiRe Conference in Park City, UT
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ISTE Conference in San Antonio, TX
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Ohana Conference in Rosemary Beach, FL
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CETPA in Pasadena, CA
Fresh Content
We are thankful for our readers, guest blog contributors and partners for their help in creating rich content resources for our schools.
Customer favorites include:
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eBook: A School Leader’s Guide: 9 Ways to Effectively Engage ELL Families
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eBook: 7 Habits Successful Charter Schools use to Engage Parents
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Customer Success Story: El Dorado High Achieves an All Time High, Reaching 99.7% of Their Families with ParentSquare
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Customer Success Story: Clear School-Parent Communication During Gunfire/Lockdown Near Mare Island Technology Academy
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Infographic: 9 Ways To Effectively Engage ELL Families
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Guest Blog: 5 Ways Today’s Parents Are Different Than Our Parent’s Generation
What’s Next
When we set priorities for ParentSquare, our goal is to create something useful for our schools and school community. I’d like to share all the new additions and enhancements on our roadmap that we’re really excited about.
Here’s to another year of innovation with:
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‘Student Square’ with student communication in ParentSquare
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Adding Assignments and Grades integration with SIS for another tool in the one-stop-shop for parents
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Enhanced Delivery Stats indicating post views across web and app in addition to email and text
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District-branded App and white-labeled ParentSquare
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Support for Human Translation with automated workflows for post translation
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Post Approval by admins, allowing more of the school community to post school-wide
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Enhancements to Administrative Dashboard to include stats on ParentSquare use and engagement across groups
I spent the last 2 weeks in India, where spiritualism is on the rise. So as you prepare your mind and body for 2018, think about your soul, your purpose in life, and what makes you and others around you happy. Here are my resolutions for the new year.
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My personal resolution: Make reflection a nightly habit to learn from the day and to think proactively
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My family resolution: Reinstate the weekend family hour – hikes, bikes, beach walks – and invite a friend
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My work resolution: Collectively find solutions about what keeps me up at night, celebrate successes
Have a hearty laugh and welcome 2018. May it be prosperous and peaceful!
With ❤️ from Santa Barbara, CA
Anupama Vaid
Founder, ParentSquare
