Marietta, 1/21/2025 — Marietta City School District is adding two-way communication and classroom announcements to the district’s mobile app. The custom Marietta City Schools app came out in the 21-22 school year, offering district and school news, updates, events, dining information and more to all school community members. With new two-way communication, parents and guardians can now send secure messages directly to teachers and see classroom announcements within the same app.
The free mobile app is available to the entire school community on the App Store for iPhones and the Play Store for Android devices. Simply search for “marietta city schools, oh”.
“Our district app meets parents where they are: on their phones. Classroom conversations and announcements are now held in the same app that our families use to view district and school level stories and events,” said Alison Woods, Interim Superintendent for the district.
She added, “Families will have a consistent communication experience day to day and year after year. That means a kindergarten parent who downloads the app today and signs up for a secure log-in one time will be able to use the same app until their student graduates from high school.”
The new set of features is called Rooms. Accessing Rooms requires a simple toggle within the district app. It’s available to parents and guardians as a place where they can communicate with teachers and share student information safely.
Parents and guardians can download the app now. Soon, they’ll receive an [email or text] that will invite them to join their child in Rooms and finish setting up their account. Guardians with multiple children will receive only one invite. That singular invite will successfully join them with all their children in Rooms. This is a one time sign up process, meaning guardians will not need to sign up per class or per year; they will remain attached to their children as they change classes or grades.
Christian Hudspeth, Communication Coordinator for Marietta City School District, has been working to implement “Rooms” to streamline communication for families and educators for much of his time with the district. “It’s important to us that families in our school community can download our district app and use this new set of features to simplify their school communication experience.”
Hudspeth added that in addition to reducing application clutter for families, it was important to make sure the schools vision and brand were integral parts of whatever solution was used. “Families will no longer need 5 or 6 different applications to communicate across multiple students and buildings. Best of all, like our website, the mobile app is branded to our school and highlights the incredible moments happening each and every day.”
Apptegy, the company that builds and powers the district’s custom app, works with thousands of other school districts across the U.S. to help them provide a communications experience that is built around their district’s branding. Apptegy helps districts present a cohesive and consistent image to their community.
The district’s website and notification system are also powered by Apptegy, giving administrators one tool to effectively communicate with the entire district and school community.
About Apptegy: Apptegy powers the identity of 4,000 school districts across the U.S. and empowers school leaders to communicate better. Its platform Thrillshare powers district and school websites, mobile apps, social media, notification systems, two-way communication, and more. Apptegy was named one of America’s Best Startup Employers by Forbes in 2020 and 2021. Apptegy was also awarded a spot on Inc. 5000’s list of the fastest growing private companies in 2021 and on the Inc. Best Workplaces list in 2022.