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Photo by Savannah Schmidt
Magnolia Elementary School utilizes Circool, the new safety app, to check visitors into a choir concert on Nov. 7, 2024.
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Photo by Savannah Schmidt
Magnolia Elementary School utilizes Circool, the new safety app, to check visitors into a choir concert on Nov. 7, 2024.
Trussville City Schools has a new safety system for its schools in the 2024-25 school year.
The software, called Circool, was created by Jason Rouston, a graduate of Hewitt-Trussville High School. It allows schools to validate anyone entering a school building individually or in large groups attending an event.
Rouston conceived the idea for Circool after a scary incident during a regular pep rally-style event for kids and their families, which are held each Friday at his son’s elementary school.
“Think about all of the parents, grandparents, staff and kids all packed into a gym and they're singing songs and dancing, and there's just one entry into the place that was not protected at all,” Rouston said. "One of those Fridays, we had an individual just blend in with the crowd and got access into our school.”
The software also integrates with PowerSchool, which runs instant checks on the national sex offender registry and criminal databases and can verify individual visitors as well as hundreds of guests in minutes.
Additionally, the platform sends instant emails and text messages to school administrators and school resource officers (SROs) and keeps track of every individual in the school in real-time.
"For parents, it's super easy," Rouston said. "It's one application to check in and out of the school for staff, right? It's one application for monitoring who's in the school at any one point in time.”
The platform was piloted in 2023-24 at Hewitt-Trussville High School and rolled out to all schools this year. Magnolia Elementary School Principal Phyllis Faust said the platform has enabled the staff to verify anyone visiting the school for an event or to have lunch with a student.
In place for just a few months this year, Faust said parents and extended family members adapted to the platform quickly and it is providing peace of mind for parents and school staff.
“It lets us know that the people that are here are supposed to be here and is not just someone random that has said they are coming to an event. In the years past, that’s the way it would be,” Faust said. “They would sign in, get a visitor’s sticker and then they would come on into the school. But now, they’re vetted in order to make sure we know who they are."
