Today at 5PM we will test our Parent Alert EMERGENCY ALERT system.
We hope we never have to use this other than an annual test. We will NEVER do a test during school hours. If an Emergency Alert is sent during school hours, it will say “EMERGENCY” and it will be an actual emergency, and you will receive information and instructions.
Today’s TEST ALERT will read:
“This is a TEST of our EMERGENCY ALERT. No action is necessary. Thank you.”
If you do not receive today’s alert, please check your settings in ParentWeb. You may have to reset your selection.
Please be advised of the following from our alert system:
Selecting the Emergency option will override Family Individual Preferences.
Parents who have replied “STOP” to a text sent by the school have blocked messages with their cell provider and will not receive texts.
Please note that regular Parent Alerts are sent with reminders, school closings, inclement weather, and traffic advisories that may be time sensitive and get buried in email. We all check our texts faster than email 🙂
We will have our Fall Parent Meeting this Friday, August 15 at 9 AM.
After you drop of your student(s), just park and stay for the meeting in the auditorium of the 200 building.
We will have coffee & tea while giving you an overview of school information and the upcoming year as well as answer any questions you may have regarding this school year, FACTS, volunteering, etc. This is optional but highly recommended for new parents, if possible.
Brookwood Christian is in the process of implementing several services to make things easier for our families, students, staff, and to consilidate & minimize redundancy in the office.
Features to look for: -Premier Billing (FACTS Tuition & SIS merge) -Grant & Aid Applications -Online Application and/or Reenrollment -Giving
PREMIER BILLING
As many of you know, in Fall of 2017 we began utilizing FACTS Tuition to reduce the amount of time spent in the office dealing with bookkeeping and deposits. Within 3 months, the only regret we had was not doing it sooner!
During the Spring of 2018, McGraw-Hill announced that Engrade would no longer be an option for Student Information Systems (SIS) and Report Cards, so the logical step was RenWeb, a “sister company” of FACTS, both of whom have been leaders of these services for private schools across the U.S.
During the Fall of 2018, FACTS & RenWeb formally merged into one company and as we learned this summer at the FACTS conference, many changes are coming that will make things easier for both our families and staff.
The biggest one, which we are in process of implementing, is having FACTS Tuition and FACTS SIS system integrated into ONE easier to use system, Premier Billing. Below are some of the benefits for our families:
Simplified Enrollment
FACTS offers a faster, easier way for parents to enroll using Premier Billing. Parents simply select a payment plan as part of their enrollment/re-enrollment process.
Re-enrolling parents can pay registration fees using the stored bank account information in FACTS and view their enrollment fee payment in their FACTS financial activity.
Easy Login
Parents can view academic information and pay tuition and fees from any device with one username and password.
Premier Billing allows parents to access correspondence and account details, add funds to their prepay accounts, and make payments on tuition and bills from a single login.
Information Security
Your family data is kept under digital lock and key with the highest security standards in the industry.
GRANT & AID
This service will streamline applying for scholarships and aid (excluding the Georgia Special Needs (SB10) Scholarship). With a true, independently determined need of our families, this can not only make it possible to find other sources of funding, but also give a clear picture of need for other funding and grant writing.
Easy online application guides families through the entire process.
With one application and a single application fee, families can apply for aid at multiple FACTS schools.
All required verification documents are easily uploaded.
Families are alerted of their award status via email and can accept or decline online.
FACTS offers in-house customer service center staffed with best-in-class live agents and web chat.
Accessible through all modern internet browsers with a responsive design that gives families access through their preferred device, from desktop to tablet to phone.
FACTS provide the highest security standards in the industry when it comes to the collection and storage of financial and demographic data.
ONLINE APPLICATION & ENROLLMENT
Using a cost-effective school enrollment solution allows us to go paperless and view applications and enrollment packets as they are completed – saving time, resources, and making school budget projections more accurate. Benefits for families include:
Easy applications. School admissions solutions shouldn’t be complicated. Responsive application design and pre-populated demographic fields make admissions and enrollment a breeze.
Quick and simple. Families can sign up for payment plans during enrollment or re-enrollment.
No paper needed. No more leaving work early to turn in school paperwork. Parents can make their application fee payment on the go and send/receive referral forms online.
Access from anywhere. Parents can complete application and enrollment packets with any device – from laptop to smartphone.
FACTS GIVING
This service will make it easier for people to donate. Whether it’s our families, our alumni, or the broader community, this gives us the flexibility to create various appeals and events, and offers donors the ability to give via online gifts, text, pledges, event registrations, and more.
Donors can easily donate from any device via credit card, debit card, or ACH.
Text-to-give capability makes giving easy and convenient for our donors and for fundraising events.
Progress tracker updates, so donors can see their immediate impact on a project’s goals.
Donors can choose to cover transaction fees.
Supports one-time gifts, recurring donations, and pledges.
Email and text receipts make it easy to track individual giving and organize information for tax purposes.
No worries about payment or demographic information thanks to FACTS’ industry-leading security standards.
All four of these services are currently in the implementation process. We will let you know once they are available for your use.
Thank you so much for your patience and understanding during this process, we are confident that once implemented this will make things so much easier for all of us. If you have ANY questions, Ms. Tammy will be available during Sneak-a-Peak, Wednesday, August 7th from 1-3pm.
Follow the instructions using the email address that received setup email or it will not recognize you as affiliated with the school. It may take 10-15 minutes to get the reply email with the link for password selection. If you did not receive a setup email please contact the office.
Please note that your password must be 6-8 characters using at least one letter and one number and NO special characters. If you go over, it will not let you know, and you will have to contact FACTS to reset, so be careful!
Once you have completely registered, you should be able to login. On the menu bar at left you should see a link for “Web Forms”. When you click on that it will take you to a list containing “Family Demographic Form” which will display 6 forms that need completing at your earliest convenience.
Some information may already be complete, but please review for typos and transmission errors. We realize that some of this is the same information on your registration paperwork, but there is no other way to get it uploaded in a timely manner. Once this is completed, you will not have to do this again, other than address/phone#/email/etc changes as they occur. Items in brackets are optional [optional]
For each form, once you are finished, click “Save” at the bottom, then “Return to main form” up top to get to the next form.
Do not use “quotes” for any field. Doing so will invalidate that field and we will not see the information.
Please note that we will not allow your child to leave campus with anyone that is not
CUSTODIAL PARENT,
EMERGENCY CONTACT, or on the
APPROVED TRANSPORTATION LIST!
FORMS:
Student Demographic Form:
Correct legal First, Middle, Last, plus Nickname, birthday, gender, ethnicity
Mailing address where student resides
Main Parent Contact as Home or Cell (depending),
email is for student school email, if applicable, otherwise leave blank
[Religious Affiliation]
Student Medical Form:
Physician & insurance Info – Please make sure Permission to treat is on correct preference and Insurance information is correct.
Please complete the medication list, using notes to tell us administration times at school, along with medical conditions & allergies.
Include anything you would want emergency responders to be aware of.
Be sure to check “yes” for permission to treatif you wish to have emergency responders/hospital treat you child in the event of an emergency. The default for this is “no” and without permission they will not be able to until you are able to be contacted to give permission.
Custodial Parent Form:
Name, phone number(s), email(s), and address(es) [birthday] [religious]
For each parent, the bottom there are buttons to select if and where you want alerts. Set those to your desired settings.
If a parent on birth certificate is not allowed custody of child, we need a copy of court order in office file and we will also set an alert in SIS.
Emergency Contacts:
You can list up to 20 people who we should contact in an emergency
DO NOT LIST ANYONE YOU DO NOT WANT TO PICK UP YOUR CHILD IN AN EMERGENCY,
Please list in order of how you want us to contact (hopefully we’ll never need these)
Approved Transportation Form:
Please list thoseALLOWED TO PICK UP YOUR CHILD FROM SCHOOL.
Any regular pick ups please put in notes, i.e. ‘Suzy rides home with her Aunt Mary every Friday’ in Aunt Contact
Please be aware that Main Street is scheduled to be paved on Monday, April 22 and Tuesday, April 23 from the Caboose to roughly Dallas Street. The intention is to keep one lane open during the paving process, however please expect brief delays. Storefront parking from Lemon Street to Dallas Street will not be available during the paving.
On Wednesday, April 24 and Thursday, April 25 paving will move to the area under construction on Northside / Southside Drive. The intention is to keep one lane open during the process to allow access to the businesses located in the construction area.
Depending on your tax situation your child’s tuition may count as a deduction for “medical” expenses, your accountant will be able to offer more advice.
Below are the instructions for printing your 2018 tuition total (Spring 2017-2018 plus Fall 2018-2019). Once printed, attach with the Tax Letter (click HERE) and give to your accountant.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.
In the interest of the safety of our faculty and staff, there will be no school tomorrow…
Because of the high likelihood of black ice tomorrow, 12/11/2018, and
We have families traveling from 6 counties which will be impacted at various levels, combined with
It is not expected to get above freezing before 10AM at the earliest, making it likely that it will be 11AM before travel is safe
Please be safe and we will see you Wednesday.
Also… for future reference, remember that we always close if Cobb County closes, and we also close if any 2 of Bartow, Cherokee, Fulton, or Paulding close. However, because of our unique situation with students coming from various counties, we have a larger burden of safety than judging based on one county alone, so we may cancel before they do.
Please note that re-enrollment forms have been sent home.
Paperwork is due back Friday, April 13 along with the $300 enrollment fee. If this fee is paid by Friday, April 13, it will be applied toward next year’s tuition. Otherwise it will be an additional fee on top of the tuition.
