Federal Way Public School District extends community outreach using Zoom platform

If there’s one word that describes the Federal Way Public School district, it’s “community.” Comprising 37 schools and more than 21,000 students in King County, Wash., the school district prides itself on delivering exceptional education to a diverse student population and performing outreach programs that encourage parents to become active participants in their child’s education.

To uphold its reputation for delivering a high level of support to the community, Federal Way depends heavily on reliable communications technology. When its legacy phone system began nearing end of life, the district knew it needed modern features and capabilities, and thus began the search for a new provider.

Key features, flexibility and familiarity pave the way for natural Zoom Phone evolution

Finding the right phone solution didn’t happen overnight. Federal Way evaluated five unique providers in hopes of finding a flexible, feature-rich platform that could not only streamline communications but also scale or pivot with ease to meet a variety of growing needs. 

“Outreach and communication are pivotal for us. But during the pandemic, it became difficult for our remote staff to contact students’ families with their personal phones, due to privacy purposes,” Federal Way’s Chief Technology Officer Rachelle Butz said. 

Staff members worked remotely during the schools’ emergency closures yet were unable to use their office phones. Facing new challenges, the staff developed creative solutions to communicate remotely, but to minimize any future disruptions, they would need a cloud-based platform that could work from anywhere. 

Ultimately, Federal Way chose Zoom Phone for its flexibility, in-depth emergency features, familiar user experience, and ability to help meet strict compliance requirements.

Massive migration is simplified with Zoom Professional Services 

Because it’s cloud-based, Zoom Phone enabled the Federal Way teams to continue their phone service while simultaneously replacing the schools’ physical hardware. In total, the district installed more than 3,000 phones during the migration to better serve the staff and administration. 

Adding to the complexity, Rachelle’s IT team needed to assign licenses to individual users and group the phone numbers in blocks by their classroom or office location. This led them to Zoom’s Professional Services Organization (PSO), which helped them manage the phone system transition and deployment. 

“Education is very different from other industries, so we appreciated the ability to call Zoom’s PSO team any time for suggestions, to figure out features, or get help working with our developers to make improvements,” Rachelle said. “They were very responsive and always listening.” 

As many CTOs know, implementing new technology is not truly successful until staff members have fully adopted the solution. Having previously used Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars for remote events, Federal Way teachers and staff were familiar with Zoom’s platform and appreciated the familiar user experience. What’s more, Federal Way PS ITS staff were able to work with the Zoom Support Team to collaborate on training videos and support documents, making the process much easier for the staff to adopt a new phone system.

New reliability in times of crisis

Because they must follow a strict emergency and safety plan, Federal Way staff members have added peace of mind with Zoom Phone’s built-in safety measures. Should staff need to contact 911, first responders can pinpoint the location of the call (rather than a general campus building) using Zoom Phone’s Nomadic E911 feature. The team is thankful for a seamless backup plan should they experience a power loss during inclement weather.

Enhancing productivity and extending outreach with Zoom tools

With more than 100 languages spoken throughout the Federal Way district, communication can be difficult at times. But with Zoom’s translation and transcription tools, the staff is able to maximize productivity and continue community outreach with fewer barriers.

“Zoom’s language translation services and new features are tremendous for a school district’s ability to use the Zoom platform and have community outreach in meaningful ways,” Rachelle explained. “With this technology, multitasking is easier. We can do more.”  

This do-more approach is evident in Federal Way’s ability to serve its communities and reach families in flexible ways to best meet their needs.

A new partnership for long-term support

In addition to partnering with students and their families, the Federal Way staff think of Zoom as another long-term partner and look forward to how it can help them move their communication efforts forward.