State launches NH Alerts, a new, ‘more efficient’ emergency notification system

By Avanti Nambiar-Granite State News Collaborative

The state of New Hampshire recently unveiled NH Alerts, a new emergency notification designed to warn people about emergencies — among them, tornadoes, floods, power outages and gas leaks.

Launched on Jan. 1, NH Alerts runs on the Genasys emergency management platform, which replaces the previous CodeRed system. The state Division of Emergency Services and Communications, which oversees NH Alerts, says the Genasys platform allows public safety officials to more quickly deliver emergency and non-emergency notifications through a variety of methods, including phone calls, e-mails and text messages.

Mark Doyle, director of the division, is overseeing the transition. He said Genasys is “much easier to use” than CodeRed, and that its capabilities are “broader.” He also said the new system identifies local emergencies faster and can push out alerts “in a more efficient manner.”

The Emergency Services and Communications Division, which operates under the state Department of Safety, provides public safety messaging across the state through both local platforms and mass alerts, Doyle said. He pointed to the Genasys system’s greater speed in sending out alerts as a major benefit. “If we can save a few seconds, or even a few minutes … to be able to get that message out to the population that could be adversely impacted, and maybe save a few lives doing it … that’s exactly what it is we want to do.” 

Doyle said that the division is developing a campaign designed to teach the public about the capabilities of the Genasys system.

What emergencies trigger alerts?

The NH Alerts system will also be used by individual municipalities for local safety notifications, such as active shooter situations. The system will also broadcast statewide alerts for more wide-ranging incidents, such as tornadoes.

As an example, Doyle pointed to a storm that struck the New Hampshire Seacoast in January. According to the director, “large swaths of coastline” were severely affected by flooding. The NH Alerts system was critical in reaching the affected community, he said. Notifications warned residents of road closures and the hazards of approaching the beach. 

Through geographic information system (GIS) mapping, Doyle said, Genasys can target information to specific locations. Through texts and emails, the “integrated public alert warning system” can reach wireless devices within a local region, he said. Additionally, large-scale major alerts will also be communicated to residents through radio and television broadcasts. 

Many Granite Staters are already registered to be notified through NH Alerts. They are users who were registered in the prior CodeRED system before Sept. 26, 2023, and were automatically entered into the Genaysys system. 

Individuals who have not signed up yet or would like to update their information can go to ReadyNH.gov to enroll in the NH Alerts system. In addition, a Genasys Protect app for both Android and iPhone can be downloaded by users on Google Play and Apple’s App Store. The mobile app offers other features, including a map view and location-based notifications to keep you aware of public safety alerts. 

The new NH Alerts emergency notification system features the Genasys Protect app, which includes features iike map views and location-based notifications to keep users aware of public safety alerts.  (Screenshot)

Who can register?

Property owners, residents, and workers in an NHS alerts notification area can sign up through the online portal. Visitors and family members of residents in the area also have the option to register. In addition to requesting notifications, users can indicate their preferred method of contact.

Users can add their email address and phone number for texts and calls. They can also register more than one email and phone number, such as for home and personal accounts, alternative cell numbers, landlines and office phones. Users can even add their relatives’ information to the tool.

NH Alerts doesn’t require people to provide a home or work address. That being said, recording an address would help users receive location-based weather alerts. The login portal provides the option of entering multiple addresses. 

If a user’s contact info needs to be changed, they can simply log in to update their online data. The login portal can also be used to unsubscribe and delete a user’s information from the system.

The Division of Emergency Services and Communications stressed that contact information will only be used by system and local administrators. Such details are not meant to be sold to outside parties.

Emails from the alerting system will come from “State of New Hampshire” (noreply@genasys.com). The message will be accompanied by the user’s registered name or title. Phone calls should show the Caller ID “603-271-7084,” and text/SMS messages should display the Sender ID 65513. However, officials recommend that users save this information on their phone as a contact. 

What are some issues users may face?

While registering online, people may encounter a pop-up stating that their email or phone number is already registered. This may mean that somebody else has added their contact info into the system. In these situations, a person can return to the login screen and click “Forget your Password?” They can then use their pre-registered email or phone number to receive a temporary code to continue.

If a registered user fails to receive alerts from the system, it could be for any number of reasons. For example, their contact info may be out of date. If emails are missing, it could be that the email provider placed them in a spam or junk folder. If text messages are absent, the user may have forgotten to enable the SMS checkbox. For such reasons, NH Alerts management recommends users register more than one contact method.

For further information, email desc.database@desc.nh.gov. or call 603-271-6911 and press Option 4 and ask to speak to the E911 field representative for your town. 

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.

State Board of Education produces an unexpected document to guide updates of minimum standards for public schools

The document introduced this week is significantly different from one created in a three-year study of possible revisions. 

By Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative

After spending $75,000 to have expert consultants draft a revision to the state’s minimum standards for public schools, the Department of Education moved forward this week with its own set of revisions.

That document, introduced Thursday during a meeting of the State Board of Education, looks unfamiliar to contractors who have been working for more than three years on updating the standards, and to education advocates who have been following the process closely. 

So far, the department has declined to disclose the consultant’s draft, submitted Jan. 22, despite right-to-know requests. 

Now, a number of groups are scrambling to analyze the new minimum-standards document, which will define public education in New Hampshire for the next decade, before a public hearing scheduled for April 3. 

“We had some significant concerns with the version that was previously on the table and we have even more concerns with this one,” said Christina Pretorius, policy director for Reaching Higher New Hampshire, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on education policy. 

The draft proposal “really appears to dismantle public schools and water down what it means to be a public school,” Pretorius said. 

In 2020, the Department of Education signed a $50,000 contract to “facilitate a revision” of the minimum standards for public school approval, known as the 306s, with the Durham-based National Center for Competency-Based Learning. That contract was recently extended for an additional $25,000, according to Fred Bramante, president of the center, who has been leading the revision efforts. 

At a community session in Hinsdale, Fred Bramante, former chair of the N.H. State Board of Education, elicits questions and feedback about a redevelopment of rules for public education in New Hampshire.

Jamie Browder / The Keene Sentinel

The center convened a 13-member task force to oversee the revisions and, after educator outcry, gathered public input through 13 listening sessions last year. In November, Bramante met with the state’s largest teachers union for the first time, in response to concerns that teachers had not been part of the revision process. Based on that input, the task force drafted a revision to the 306s and submitted it to the Department of Education on Jan. 22, Bramante said. 

“The draft from Jan. 22 had work that was done that was thoughtful and intentional,” said Meghan Tuttle, president of the state’s largest teachers union, which endorsed the January draft. Tuttle declined to comment on the department’s draft because she had not yet been able to analyze how it compares to the revision she was involved with. 

Bramante, who has overseen the multiyear revision process, said there are substantial differences between the two documents. 

“Fortunately, the (Department of Education) put lots of our recommendations in their draft, but they also changed a lot,” Bramante said, adding that his task force is not taking a position on the department’s draft until its members can conduct a more in-depth analysis. 

Last fall, member’s of Bramante’s task force told a reporter that the education department would make changes in the drafts of the 306s that the task force had exchanged with the department, including to language around equity. Ultimately, recommendations from Bramante’s task force are not binding, and the department had the right to alter the document that was introduced into the formal rulemaking process, as it did this week. 

Signs made by students line the hallways of Pittsfield elementary. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

A question of trust

Throughout the 306 revision process, educators and policy experts repeatedly emphasized a belief that the department, led by Commissioner Frank Edelblut, cannot be trusted to protect the institutions of public education. 

Task force member Val Zanchuk acknowledged at a September listening session that many people worried the 306s, revised under Edelblut, could “create loopholes for people who had an anti-public-school bent.” 

That concern was brought up again this week by Pretorius, of Reaching Higher, who did a preliminary analysis of the department’s draft and outlined six primary concerns. Among them: The document removes references to local control of education and removes class size requirements, potentially leaving the state with no ceiling on class sizes. 

In addition, she has concerns about language in the document, such as replacing the word “instruction” with “learning,” and switching the word “shall” to “may,” which removes certain mandates.

Pretorius worries those changes could be used to alter the calculation of “adequate education funding” — a constitutional requirement for the state to supply to local districts, and a subject of ongoing lawsuits in the state. 

Some changes in the 306s are similar to efforts previously voted down by the Legislature, she added, including a 2022 bill that would have removed art, social studies, and other subjects from the core academic areas studied by New Hampshire students. 

“There have been legislative efforts to do some of this work that haven’t passed, and now we’re seeing shadows of that in this rule proposal,” Pretorius said.

Changes in class size requirements and specific subject requirements, including social studies, were not in the January draft, Bramante said, in part because his task force felt “we were not the right one” to make those specific changes. 

 (Dave Cummings | New Hampshire Bulletin)

Three minutes for the consultant

Prior to yesterday’s meeting, Bramante was hoping to present the content of the task force’s revision to the State Board of Education, he said. He offered, but was told he could speak during public commentary, which is limited to three minutes, rather than having designated time. 

Bramante anticipates that the Jan. 22 document submitted by the task force, which he said was endorsed by the school administrators association in addition to the teachers union, will be made public eventually. 

“If there’s a document that’s endorsed and supported by the leaderships of the groups that are responsible for implementing (these changes) … I think that says something,” Bramante said. “I’m not telling you that ours is better than (the Department of Education’s). … I’m saying we put a group together, a very credible team, and we came to agreement on a lot of very serious issues, and, I think all of us would say, advanced competency-based learning.”

The state board will hold a public hearing on April 3, where members of the public can voice their opinion on the proposed updates for minimum standards for public schools, the only legally required opportunity for public input in this process. 

“That’s a big date,” Pretorius said. 

Follow the Granite State News Collaborative’s series on Competency-Based Education to stay up-to-date on this developing story.