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"Hey there! ksddistrict is using Twitter."
That's the message that greets students, parents and web surfers who find Kennewick School District's page on the popular microblogging site that boasts users from Ashton Kutcher to Oprah.
It's also a message district leaders want to get out because they feel the site -- which allows for posting messages of no more than 140 letters or symbols -- is another way to reach out to the community with news about Kennewick schools.
"It doesn't replace newsletters, e-mail and (our) website. But we see it as a useful way to get out immediate messages. It's a way to keep reminders out in front of our parents," said Lorraine Cooper, the district's communications director and Twitter guru.
The district's Twitter page officially launched at the beginning of the month, although there are some tweets -- or messages -- on the page from the start of the school year. Each of the district's schools also has its own Twitter account.
One of the most active is the page belonging to Desert Hills Middle School. Amanda Workman, the school's librarian, is the lead tweeter.
She mines the daily bulletin for tidbits to post. On Friday, the page had announcements about an upcoming canned food drive and a book fair.
"You only have 140 characters, so it's barely a sentence. It takes 20 seconds to update. It's a really fast, easy way to get information out there," Workman said.
She tries to tweet at least once a day. Some Desert Hills students are on Twitter and have signed up to follow the school, meaning they get the tweets sent to their computer or even their phone.
But several of the followers are parents. The service is appealing to "especially this new generation of parents ... (they've) grown up with technology and cell phones" and are used to getting their information that way, Workman said.
Kennewick schools aren't the only ones taking advantage of social networking sites. Delta High School -- the new regional public school focused on science, technology, engineering and math that opened in Richland this year -- has an active Facebook page.
So do Columbia Basin College in Pasco and Washington State University Tri-Cities in Richland. Those institutions also are on Twitter.
"It's important to keep up with technology and what students are using today," said Erica Jesberger, a communications consultant for CBC. "As new things come along, we'll try to keep up."
Twitter is free, so the schools didn't have to pay to sign up.
School leaders also said the service could provide a way to quickly post updates in emergencies. Kennewick School District tweeted last month about a fire alarm malfunction that prompted the brief evacuation of an elementary school.
Workman reminded Desert Hills followers last week about where to find school delay and closure information.
"It's another way of communicating with parents and trying to connect with them," she said. "The better the communication, the better the school will be."
-- Sara Schilling: 582-1402; sschilling@tricityherald.com
