Speaker: Dr. Molly Blakely, Superintendent
Introduction: tell us your name and job role
Dr. Molly Blakely: Hello, my name is Doctor Molly Blakely. I am the superintendent of Hellgate Elementary School District.
What were you doing before E3, and what's changed since?
Dr. Molly Blakely: system of choice. We have currently five buildings on our campus. And so it's very, very important for us to be able to communicate effectively and efficiently. And E3 has absolutely been the answer to all of our needs on campus, particularly as a superintendent. I'm sometimes off campus and to be able to be able to see when alerts come in and to be able to communicate with staff. Even if I'm not on campus has been absolutely a game changer for us, the ease of implementation is amazing. The customer service is amazing. And quite frankly, if I ruled the world, I would have every school implement E3.
What do you like most about E3 and why?
Dr. Molly Blakely: There are several components of E3 that I think are very, very beneficial. First, the mapping ability is incredible. We did some demos when we first implemented where I assigned certain teachers in certain buildings to check in as unsafe and then to put things in the chat features. And it was amazing how quickly that works.
Dr. Molly Blakely: And so the mapping feature and I think the chat features are probably, as a district leader, my two most favorite components of the E3 app.
How was the training/onboarding experience?
Dr. Molly Blakely: This is my 32nd year in education. So I have experienced and witnessed lots of professional development training. Some, some good, some not so good. And I would say that by far the professional development training that the E3 staff offers is absolutely stellar. They understand how schools operate, they understand the needs of schools.
Dr. Molly Blakely: And without question, the E3 staff listened to us, understood our needs and within days, had a solution for us. They've been with us every step of the way, every question that
Have you used E3 in a real situation? If so, would you mind sharing a brief summary.
Dr. Molly Blakely: We actually had two incidences last year where we needed to utilize the E3 app. The first one, I got a call from the police department that just said there was a shooter in the area and that we were to go into lockdown immediately.
Dr. Molly Blakely: It turned out that the person was never on our campus but was near our campus and the lockdown lasted for about an hour and 15 minutes. And again, the ability to communicate with staff on a regular basis as well as then communicate with parents was really, really amazing.
Dr. Molly Blakely: I was able to then debrief with teacher teams and with our administrative staff and overwhelmingly, the feedback was that they just always felt informed because of that chat feature and they also felt informed because when people checked in on their mapping, everything was green. And so we knew instantaneously that the danger was not actually in a building or on our campus. And so again, I just cannot speak highly enough about it at the end of that incident, when everyone was home and we sort of had a time to, to debrief about it and get a little perspective on it. Uh, quite frankly, as a superintendent, I don't know what I would have done, without that E3 app, because I would not have had an opportunity or a venue or channel to speak to staff. So that everyone gets the same message at the same time. So, it's been a game changer.
