Happy Winter Break, ACPS! The Compass will return with regular posts on Wednesday, January 4, 2023.

Attention all ACPS employees! Open Enrollment is coming November 1-15! Inclement weather is sure to pay a visit this winter! We don’t want you to miss out on important messages, like reminders to participate in Open Enrollment and announcements about school schedule changes. We encourage you to sign in to our Electronic School Notification System and register your personal email address and/or up to two telephone numbers –OR– if you are already registered, check to make sure we have your preferred contact information on file. Continue reading →

The Compass is taking vacation July 1-8. Regular posts will resume the week of July 11. Best wishes for a celebratory Independence Day holiday!

The Compass is taking vacation the week of April 4-8. Regular posts will resume the week of April 11. Best wishes for a wonderful Spring Break!

Starting Monday, March 7, middle and high school students will be greeted with a welcoming pop-up message, just like our staff. This page will appear when the student opens their ACPS-provided device for the first time each Monday.

The student page features alternating student spotlights and motivational quotes, a fun fact, monthly highlights, and more! The goal of this page is to keep students informed with the broader ACPS community and engaged with their peers. Continue reading →

Albemarle County Public Schools uses an Electronic School Notification System (ESNS) to share important information with our school community (including parents/guardians, employees, and students*) through voice, email and text messaging. We currently use a company called BrightArrow to provide this service.

As an employee, your k12albemarle.org email address is automatically enrolled in our ESNS system. Did you know that you can also add a personal email address and up to two phone numbers? Also, new this school year, employees can register to receive text messages. You can visit the Employees tab of our Electronic School Notification System web page and click on the web-based update tool to review, update, enroll or unenroll your contact information. Continue reading →

As a follow-up to our August 10 Compass post introducing BrightArrow as the division’s new mass communication system, the BrightArrow project team would like to provide you with an update and let you know how this transition will affect you.

As a reminder, Albemarle County Public Schools uses an Electronic School Notification System (ESNS) to share important information with our school community through voice, email and text messaging. For the last several years, we have partnered with a company called Blackboard to provide this service. Following a review of our communication needs and a thorough evaluation of available communication tools, we decided to move forward with a new company called BrightArrow. As of today, Friday, October 15, all schools and departments will be sending messages using our new BrightArrow mass communication system. Continue reading →

Among the school division’s most important responsibilities is sharing valuable and timely information with our school families, students and staff. For a number of years, ACPS has used the Blackboard Connect mass communication system to reach our stakeholders through email, phone and text messaging. In a short while, however, our contract with this company will come to an end. Earlier this year, a team of school leaders and technology, communications and ESOL professionals worked together to evaluate proposals from 11 different mass communication companies. Ultimately, we selected BrightArrow’s Mass Notification Solution for PowerSchool as the best choice to meet our communication needs. Continue reading →