School Messenger
Effective communication is an important tool to allow us to engage students, staff, parents and all stakeholders in support of student achievement.
As of August 1, 2020, UCFSD has moved to a new bulk email notification system, School Messenger.
UCFSD uses the School Messenger notification system to send out important updates and messages to our families, including alerts regarding school closures, safety information, events, attendance, and general information.
School Messenger works using the information and settings you select in your PowerSchool Parent account (i.e. contact information, preferences on what messages you would like to receive from the district, etc.)
TEXT MESSAGE NOTIFICATIONS
SchoolMessenger allows us to send text notifications regarding school closures, delays and emergencies. Text notifications will always be in addition to the email and phone call you traditionally receive during these situations. In order to receive text notifications from UCFSD, you will need to opt in.
Opt-in at any time by texting "Y" to 67587
Opt-out at any time by texting "STOP" to 67587
PLEASE NOTE: In order to opt-in to receive text message notifications from UCFSD, your phone number must be listed in PowerSchool.
If you are unsure of your opt-in status with SchoolMessenger and do not receive the message later today, please contact your school’s office manager to check your setting in PowerSchool.
> Check your SPAM folder (especially FOR A business/Organization email address)
If you are not receiving our communications, please first check your SPAM folder. Oftentimes with a new email system, a business or corporation may filter the message to SPAM. A best practice would be to set your preferred email in PowerSchool to a personal email address as opposed to a business email address. You may do this by logging in to the Parent Portal and updating your contact information in your account.
> MARK OUR EMAILS AS TRUSTED/SAFE SENDERS (WHITELISTING)
Email notifications that we send from School Messenger will impersonate our school email address. The domain name used by the messages is @spe.schoolmessenger.com and @ucfsd.net. Some email providers may erroneously determine that messages from this sender are Spam, Junk or Clutter. If these messages go to Spam, Junk or Clutter folders, you can mark this email address as trusted. Please note: You can add the domain of spe.schoolmessenger.com and ucfsd.net to cover all emails that are sent from the district. Contact your email provider or click below for more information from the web about trusting/whitelisting email addresses:
- Gmail (Source: OnlineGoups.net)
- Yahoo! Mail (Source: OnlineGoups.net)
- Outlook.com, Windows Live Mail, Hotmail, MSN Mail (Source: OnlineGoups.net)
- Comcast.net (Source: Xfinity.com)
> Make sure your contact information in PowerSchool is current and accurate.
We realize parents may change jobs or create new email accounts. Also, many of our parents list multiple email addresses in PowerSchool. Emergency messages are always sent to ALL emails listed for each student, however, when we send general email messages, the message is only sent to the first two emails listed in your PowerSchool account. Therefore, if any of the emails in these slots are outdated (i.e. an old work email), you would not receive the message.
We suggest you set your preferred email in the first position to a personal email address that you know will not change. To check your contact information in PowerSchool, log in to the Parent Portal here. Once logged in, click on “Forms” on the left-hand side. Then click “Contact Information.”
> contact your school's office manager to check your family's powerschool settings
If your messages are not in your SPAM folder and you have confirmed that your contact information is current and accurate, the issue may have to do with the custody indicator in PowerSchool. Our previous system did not rely on the custody indicator when pulling data for emails. Our new system does, therefore we need to check your PowerSchool account and make sure the custody box is checked for each parent for each student. This would explain why one parent may have been receiving emails but not the other. Contact your school’s office manager and they will log into PowerSchool and check your account and add this indicator if missing. NOTE: If this is the problem then it will be fixed in PowerSchool once it is checked but will not update in School Messenger until that evening when the data refreshes.
> If STILL ARE NOT RECEIVING MESSAGES...
Please reach out to: ucfsdcommunications@ucfsd.net