Danville Area School District uses Blackboard's Mass Notification service, an alert and notification service. With the Blackboard Mass Notification service, our schools can send periodic and personalized voice/text/email messages to parents within minutes. The Blackboard Mass Notification service is used to complement our emergency preparedness procedures and to inform parents of other important issues. Student contact numbers and email addresses for parents/guardians are pulled from our student information system.

More information about the Blackboard Mass Notification service may be found at https://www.blackboard.com/notification-system/blackboard-mass-notifications.html

**Please note that Blackboard Mass Notification is a courtesy we extend to our parents and our staff.  Due to the nature of how delivery systems work and the many factors that are involved, notification systems are never 100% in the delivery of calls.  We make every effort to ensure the numbers in the system are correct but do not guarantee that everyone will be reached every time we send out a call.  If the weather is bad or any other emergency situation arises and you do not receive a call, please use alternate methods to find the current status of the district (Email, Website, Radio, TV, and Facebook)

QUESTION: I received the call but I missed the information. What should I do?
ANSWER: While you are still on the call, you can replay the message by pressing star (*) on your phone at any time.

QUESTION: My phone is equipped with the telemarketer blocking option.  In order to reach me or leave a message you must dial 1 if you are not a telemarketer.  Will the messages go through on my phone?
ANSWER: No.  If your home phone is setup to have a number dialed in order to reach a person or answering machine, you will not receive a message.  You may contact your school office to have your cell phone made your primary phone or for email receipt only.

QUESTION: My work/home phone needs an extension dialed in order to reach me.  Will the system get through to me?
ANSWER: No.  The system is unable to dial extensions.  If your home phone has an extension option you will need to contact your school office with an alternate contact option.  Your work phone will not be called by the system if you have an extension listed in our student information system for it.

QUESTION: I received the call but my answering machine cut it off. Why?
ANSWER: The system attempts to detect whether it is a live person or and answering machine that has picked up the call. In rare instances, such as when an answering machine message contains a period of silence, the system will detect an answering machine as a live person and start to deliver the message prior to the beep. Sometimes, a message is cut off by an answering machine simply because its duration is longer than the machine allows for a single message. Generally an answering machine will cut off a message after one minute.

QUESTION: I received the call on my cell phone but it kept looping/repeating. Why?
ANSWER: The system does its best to detect whether there is a live person or an answering machine picking up the call. Sometimes when there is ambient noise, the system inappropriately detects a live person as an answering machine. When this happens, it continues to wait for the answering machine’s beep followed by a brief moment of silence before starting to play the message from the beginning. The parent can prevent the message from looping by minimizing background noise or pressing mute on the phone.

QUESTION:  Will there be other attempts to reach me if I am unable to pick up the call?
ANSWER: Yes, the system will make up to three attempts to reach you or your answering machine (depending on the options selected by the sender). If it is unable to reach you within two hours it will stop calling and be classified as no answer.

Have a question, suggestion, or comment about Blackboard Mass Notification?

It is important for us to hear from parents and staff about how we can improve the delivery of this notification system. As a parent or staff member, It is important that you contact us when things go as planned and when we need to make adjustments. Should you have a question, suggestion, or comment about Blackboard Mass Notification, please e-mail us at webmaster@danville.k12.pa.us.