Early Release Procedure:
1.  Currently, we follow the ‘early release’ status of Freeport District 145.  
Why do we do this?  We have quite a few students at each campus who use the bus system provided by District 145.  The majority of the time, we are in agreement with the decisions made by Freeport regarding the safety of their--and our--students.  Regardless, we must provide a way for all of our students to get home safely.

2.  We are notified by Freeport District 145 after they make their decision to close early.  
They notify us by phone at both campuses.  Sometimes we are notified before they put out their automated message to their families.  Sometimes we are notified after.  We are going to be working with Freeport to make this process go more smoothly.

3.  As soon as possible--usually within 5 minutes of this notification from Freeport District 145--we make a decision as to our status.  
Information is then released through our notification systems.  

4.  Our notification systems are, in order of release and reliability:
1.  Cel.ly (If you haven’t signed up for Cel.ly yet, please do so.  Instructions can be found on the homepage of our website by clicking the ‘Cel.ly’ box.)
2.  Facebook
3.  Email
4.  Aquin Website
5.  Big Radio
6.  Rockford TV Stations and/or websites (WREX, WIFR, WTVO)
7.  WCCI Radio from Savanna
8.  Journal Standard

5.  Please DO NOT call our offices prior to this notification to ask what we are planning to do.   Please use the resources listed above to be notified of our status.  We will notify you via these systems as soon as we have our plan in place.  

On both Friday and on Monday, Freeport had to leave their status message on our phone system as our 2 incoming phone lines were full handling calls from our parents.  We had multiple messages from parents on our phone system asking about our status.  This also makes it harder to ‘find’ a message from Freeport.  

6.  When school closes early due to weather, all evening activities will be cancelled--most of the time.  
Sometimes there are exceptions to this rule and we will notify you of these situations as they arise.  But generally, if school is cancelled, all games, practices, rehearsals and meetings are cancelled.  Games will be rescheduled as quickly as possible but involve communications with the other school, coaches, referees and transportation.

7.  We are always striving to make this process work more smoothly.  We ask for your cooperation and patience as well.  

Celly--Aquin's newest Emergency Broadcast System
Aquin Catholic Schools'  Emergency Broadcast System is now provided by cel.ly (pronounced celly). Through this system, we are able to notify all households with a text message within minutes of an emergency or unplanned event that will affect the school schedule in the next 24 hours. Examples of what this system will be used for are weather closings, crisis situations, early dismissals and, in rare instances, lockdowns.

When used, the service will simultaneously contact all registered cell phone numbers and deliver a text message. We will continue to use our present notification systems--email, website, facebook, television, radio--when appropriate.

Celly can’t text numbers without a text acceptance first.  To get your first celly--text ‘@aquinschools’ to 23559 now.  Soon after you send this message you will receive 2 replies:

1.  ‘You joined @aquinschools on Celly. Txt OFF to mute or CMD for basic cmds.  Send a txt and it will go to this cell.

2.  @aquinschools.  Welcome to aquin’s celly group.  This broadcast system will be used when immediate notifications are needed.

When you receive those replies, you will be linked to the ‘aquinschools’ cell and receive announcements from Aquin when immediate notifications are needed.  Some of you may already be in a cell group with Aquin boys basketball, volleyball or softball. '@aquinschools' is an additional cell group that you should join.  More cell groups may be coming--including some classroom groups for students and teachers.  Very exciting!

If you have any questions, please contact laura.diemer@aquinschools.org or go to the Celly website at cel.ly (yes, that’s all it is). Once there, you will create a user profile, be able to view all messages as they are sent and maybe even start your own celly.

Thanks!  

WREX.com--Aquin's Secondary Emergency Broadcast System 
Aquin Catholic Schools' Secondary Emergency Broadcast System is provided by WREX.com. Through this system, we are able to notify all households with a text message within minutes of an emergency or unplanned event that will affect the school schedule in the next 24 hours. Examples of what this system will be used for are weather closings, crisis situations, early dismissals and, in rare instances, lockdowns.

When used, the service will simultaneously contact all registered cell phone numbers and email addresses and deliver a text message. We will continue to use our present notification systems--email, website, television, radio--when appropriate. 
 
This system requires registration by anyone who wishes to be contacted in this manner. To register, participants must access the site at WREX.com by clicking here.

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 Further Information
1. You will have to register yourself for the service if you want to use it. Click here to do so now. You will need to select the alerts that you wish to receive. Be sure to select 'school closings' and then 'Aquin Catholic Schools'. All other options are up to you.

2. Once registered you will receive the following text message from 89074:
Reply YES to confirm that you have signed up for 13 News alerts. Reply YES now!

Once you have replied 'YES' to confirm, you will receive the following text message from 89074:
Thanks for texting 13 News. Msg & Data rates apply. Text STOP to end at anytime and HELP for help.

3. You must 13 years or older to subscribe to this service.

4. Standard text messaging rates apply.

5. Messages will ONLY be delivered as text messages.

6. We will also provide our bulk email alerts (from laura.diemer@aquinschools.org or michele.morrison@aquinschools.org).

7. The messages we are able to send are pre-defined. With WREX, we will be able to select from a list of status updates (such as: school closed today, early dismissal, game cancelled, etc.). Additional information will be posted on our website as needed (as we have been doing).

8. Supported Carriers with WREX.com are:
ALLTEL
Appalachian Wireless
AT&T
*Bell Mobility
Bluegrass Cellular
Boost
Cellular One of East Central Illinois
Cellular One
Cellular South
Centennial Wireless
Cincinnati Bell
Dobson
Immix Wireless
MetroPCS
*MTS
Nextel
*NorthernTel
NTelos
Revol Wireless
*Rogers Wireless
*Sasktel
Sprint
SunCom
*Telus
T-Mobile
Unicel
USCellular
Verizon
Virgin Mobile
West Central Wireless
Cellcom

Thank you!

If you have any difficulties or have any questions, do not hesitate to contact laura.diemer@aquinschools.org or call 815.235.3154 x 226.