We recently sat down with Kris Crowther, an administrator at Ivy Hall Academy in Provo, Utah.

"Ivy Hall started off life as a small private school in Utah, but has grown tremendously over the last couple of years. I came on board to help with that growth, and to help them add a high school to their school.

Before Bloomz our school was doing things mostly still with paper and didn't have a big online presence. The schools were still sending out handouts and doing things the old-fashioned way. I came into the role with some experience using Bloomz at previous schools and thought "you know what, let's try some of this online stuff so that we're consistent in the way that we're communicating, especially as we're growing so much."

We came to realize that nothing that's handed out on paper is even going to make it home. Our teachers (understandably) didn't want to give out their personal cell phone numbers to students or parents. And people don't always read our emails. So we knew that communicating through texting was something that needed to happen. The question was, how could we make that happen without teachers having to give out their personal information or us having to purchase phones for the entire school?

We solved all of these problems with Bloomz. As one example, sending photos is now quick and easy. We have one four-year-old teacher in particular I would consider to be a power user of Bloomz. She sends out photos every single day. The parents want to see that their little ones are okay and doing well and that they're happy, they also want to know what they're learning. 

Parents these days want more than just a very brief sentence at the end of the day when they pick up their kids. Our teachers can send little messages throughout the day, pictures and notes - and the parents love it. Another great thing is the parents can respond, but it's not coming through personal texting.

Overall, we have been extremely happy with Bloomz and can highly recommend the app to other schools!"