Stay informed about your Northside schools

While one-on-one communication is the best, in a District as large as Northside ISD it is sometimes difficult. Because we want our parents to stay informed, NISD has several ways that parents and other interested citizens can stay informed about the successes and challenges of San Antonio’s premier school district of choice, as well as find out news about their children’s schools.

Stay in touch by using any of these tools to stay informed, in addition to email and phone calls. 

• SchoolMessenger is the primary tool used by the District for communicating to parents including during emergencies, lockdowns, and other active incidents on campus. School Messenger sends text message, email, and voice mail alerts from students’ schools or from the District. To modify your notification preferences, including authorizing text messages during a campus incident, visit go.schoolmessenger.com. Parents must have a current phone number and email on file with their child’s school. To update contact information, contact the attendance secretary at your child’s school. If you have multiple children, you only need to contact one campus.
   
• Home Access Center (HAC) is a secure website that allows parents access to their children’s current and historical grades, attendance records, and standardized test results. Parents can also make online payments for meal accounts.  
   
• Learning Management Systems. The District utilizes two robust Learning Management Systems (LMS) that provide a connection between teachers, students, and parents. Seesaw is used for students in grades PK-1, and Schoology is used for students in grades 2-12.  With a Seesaw or Schoology parent account, you are able to access some of your child’s course assignments and grades, have direct messaging access to assigned teachers, and more. If you don’t already have a parent account, you can create one.  Here are the directions to create a Schoology Parent account. Here are the directions to create a Seesaw Parent account. 
   
• Parent Newsletter. A parent newsletter is sent out regularly during the school year to provide updated information, as well as highlight the incredible things happening in our schools. Be sure that your email address is updated in the Home Access Center (HAC) to receive this bi-weekly newsletter or contact the attendance secretary at your child’s school to update information.
   
• NISD Mobile App. The app is available for both Apple and Android devices and can be found in the app stores by searching for Northside Independent School District. Once downloaded, users can select which District schools are able to send push notifications to their device. Users will be able to access District-wide notifications, including important developments like weather updates or school closures, school menus, student grades, buses and boundary information, list of schools and maps, etc. 
   
• Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Northside ISD social media provides a variety of updates, including important announcements, emergency information, upcoming events, student achievements, and videos and photos of school activities. (Coming soon: Meta Threads)
   
• Friends of Northside sends email announcements with links to the District’s weekly newsletter, summaries of Board of Trustee meetings, and other important news. Individuals must subscribe in order to receive this communication.
   
• NISD website. Helpful information can be found not only on the District’s main website but also on individual campus websites. Current news items, school menus, buses & boundary information, and calendars are just a few of those things most frequently visited.

In addition to these district-level communication tools, be sure to check with your child’s school on how they keep parents and families informed throughout the school year.