COMMUNICATIONs

District News

Madras High senior receives prestigious Ford Foundation Scholarship

Madras High senior receives prestigious Ford Foundation Scholarship

May 25, 2022

By 509J Communications A Madras High senior will be heading to the University of Oregon after receiving a scholarship from the Ford Foundation. Christina Thomas was born and raised in Warm Springs, Oregon. She is one of around 130 students who were selected to receive...

Kindergarten Registration

Kindergarten Registration

May 16, 2022

We are so excited about having your child enroll in Kindergarten in a Jefferson County school. You care deeply about the well-being and safety of your child, and we take that responsibility very seriously. Follow these steps to get your child ready for their first...

Joseph Prechtl

Joseph Prechtl

Communications Coordinator

jprechtl@509j.net

(541) 475-6192 Ext. 2225

All media requests are directed through the Communications Department. Please contact our Communications Coordinator at Jprechtl@509j.net or call the number above.

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Our Communications Plan

Jefferson County School District 509J is committed to providing timely, accurate and clear communication to all stakeholders. We seek to provide resources and materials to ensure families, students, staff, partners, media, citizens, and other members of the community are kept informed about our key priorities, successes, and challenges.

The Communications department works with schools and departments to ensure that everyone is informed and up to date on student’s, staff’s, and faculty’s experience in 509J schools.

We aim to ensure families, students, staff, and the community that students flourish here, we care for each other, and we aim to get better every day.

We aim to celebrate the successes that happen every day in our buildings. If you wish to share an idea with us, please reach out at communications@509j.net.

We communicate through multiple channels including social media networks and our direct communication tool, Blackboard. In order to receive important updates from the district, please ensure your contact information is up to date by checking with your children’s school.

509J Communication Resources

2021-2022 Calendar
Inclement Weather Information

Jefferson County School District 509J uses Blackboard Connect, a telephone notification/messaging service, to communicate with families and district employees.  This system allows us to personally contact our families about emergencies, events, and other important issues that impact you and your child throughout the school year.

We use Blackboard Connect to send a personalized voice message to your home, work, or cell phone. For example, schools can make one phone call and reach all of the parents, employees, or a combination of both within minutes. The service also offers email and text message capability.

To make sure you are informed, be sure to supply accurate contact information to your child’s school:

  • All Contact Numbers (Home, Cell, Work)
  • Email Address
  • Home Address

Blackboard Connect will detect answering services and leave a message after the beep. Outreach messages typically go to the home phone number. Emergency messages go to numbers supplied by you.

Changes to Contact Information

Parents are responsible for making sure accurate contact information is on file at their child’s school. Changes include name, address, emergency numbers for home, work, cell phone and email address(es). If the information is not accurate, you may not receive messages sent via Blackboard Connect.

The information must be on file at your child’s school in order for schools and our district to send important messages to you via Blackboard Connect. Once information is changed, it usually takes up to 24 hours to update in the Blackboard Connect system.

Examples of Messages You May Receive:

Emergencies Outreach Attendance
  • Crisis/Safety
  • School Closings
  • Cancellations
  • Bus Delays
  • Open House
  • Test Schedules
  • School Events
  • Notification of Student Absence

Attendance messages are sent during these times to inform you of your child’s absence and for safety concerns. Parents should verify absences by contacting their child’s school. Please note, parents will still get an attendance notification message even if you have notified the school that your child will be out for a particular day or week. This is verification of school attendance records and notification to parents.

FAQ’s regarding SMS Text Messaging:  

  • Question: What happens if I provide a phone number to receive text messages?
    Answer:  We will input your text-enabled (SMS) phone number into the system, and our calling service will
    automatically send a text message to your mobile phone to confirm your request.

 

  • Question: From what number will these text messages originate?
    Answer:  All confirmation text messages and subsequent alerts will come from 23177 or 63079. Please save
    this number and program it as your school so you can quickly recognize this number as the official
    source of our messages.

 

  • Question:  What will the confirmation message say?
    Answer:  The confirmation message will read the following:
    You are confirmed to receive alerts from us. More info text reply “HELP” or “STOP 509J”
    to opt out. Msg & data rates may apply

 

  • Question:  How do I opt-out to receive text messages from our calling service?
    Answer:  When you receive the confirmation, please text reply back with “STOP 509J” The confirmation
    message will read the following:
    You are now confirmed to stop receiving messages from us.

  • Question:  I did not receive a confirmation message. What happened?
    Answer:  Check with your provider to see if text messaging has been enabled since you will need to be subscribed
    to a text messaging plan in order to receive or reply to text messages. You should also ask your mobile
    phone provider if your device accepts premium text messages.

 

  • Question:  I did not receive a confirmation message because my phone wasn’t text enabled. I have since contacted
    my mobile phone provider to enable it. Do I need another confirmation message sent?
    Answer:  No. If your SMS phone was already submitted to our database, you should be confirmed to receive text
    alerts.  However, you can check if you are opted-in by texting the word “SUBSCRIBE 509J” to 23177 or
    63079 and you will receive the following reply:
    This phone number has already been opted in. More info text reply “HELP” or “STOP 509J” to opt out

  • Question:  What if I opted-out but later decide I would like to opt-in again?
    Answer:  To re-subscribe to SMS texts, recipients can text the words “SUBSCRIBE 509J” to either of our short codes at
    • 23177 or 63079 or 82932 to receive emergency texts.
    • 53291 to receive non-emergency announcements and closure notificationsIf the recipient wants to receive both emergency and non emergency, send the text twice, once to each of the short codes

 

  • Question:  If I change mobile phone providers but keep the same number, do I need to opt-in again?
    Answer:  No. Once your phone number has been opted-in, it stays registered within the system.

Jefferson County School District and our schools utilize the following social media platforms:

Facebook Twitter Instagram

 Social Media Rules of Engagement

Jefferson County School District 509J

This site welcomes your comments and the expression of your opinion. We also respect your right to disagree. That being said, we are counting on you to follow some basic rules on our sites:

No abusive, obscene, vulgar, or inappropriate language or postings. This includes remarks that are racist, sexist, homophobic, profane, or sexually explicit. All such posts will be immediately removed. This includes masked words (***), acronyms and abbreviations. Please note that we use automatic comment filtering, so any comment containing profanity will automatically be hidden.
We will remove any post that is derogatory toward an individual, whether a student, a staff member, or a community member.
If you wish to make us aware of an issue in your school, or if you have a complaint, please submit the information following the appropriate procedure at https://www.jcsd.k12.or.us/district/contact-us/
Please cite your sources as appropriate.
We will remove posts that violate the privacy of individuals.
We will remove comments that are repetitive or are unrelated to the original post.
We will remove comments that promote or endorse political campaigns or candidates
We will remove comments that advertise or promote commercial products or services
Our page administrators reserve the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason.
Content that infringes on copyrights or trademarks will be removed.
Content that violates JCSD 509J policy, Oregon law, or federal law will be removed.
Repeat violators will be banned from the site.

These pages are not monitored 24/7. Please direct any comments or questions to jcsdfb@509j.net.

Jefferson County School District 509J does not sponsor or endorse any content posted on this social media site by third party users.

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