School PA and Bell Configuration for CareHawk CH1000

Introduction

This document will explain using the CareHawk PA system for paging, two-way intercom, and configuring bell schedules.

NOTE: All schools except Central Park Elementary and Carpenter Pre-Primary have a CareHawk CH1000 PA system that controls the bells and delivers announcements. Carpenter Pre-Primary does not have a PA system. Central Park Elementary has a different PA system controlled by Class Connection ES Administrator, a Windows application available in Software Center. This document does not include instructions for using Class Connection ES Administrator.

 

Using the PA System

ALICE Emergency Paging: All phones, even classroom phones, can dial #01 to broadcast a message to the entire school. This is intended for emergency use only.

Telephone Codes: 

IMPORTANT: Dial # first to access the PA system if you use one of the main office's regular phones. If you use the black CareHawk phone that is already connected directly to the PA system, you should not dial # first; just dial the numbers as shown below.

  • Intercom
    • XXX# where XXX is the three-digit room number. If your school only has two-digit room numbers, you must use 1 as a prefix, so room 25 is 125#.
      • IMPORTANT: You cannot use 0 as the prefix because 020 through 099 are reserved for other uses, not for the intercom.
  • Paging
    • 01# Normal Page
    • 00# Emergency Page (sounds an alarm instead of the normal chime before playing your message)
    • Inclusive and Exclusive Paging
      • 013<Room Numbers># where <Room Numbers> is a list of one or more three-digit room numbers.
        • 013356# will only page room number 356.
        • 013356362364# will page room numbers 356, 362, and 364.
      • 014<Room Numbers># where <Room Numbers> is a list of one or more three-digit room numbers.
        • 014356# will exclude room number 356.
        • 014356362364# will exclude room numbers 356, 362, and 364.
      • IMPORTANT: Always prefix a two-digit room number with a 1, not a 0. Room 25 is 125, for example.
  • Emergency Tone (continuous alarm)
    • 025# starts the emergency tone.
    • 026# stops the emergency tone.
  • Schedules
    • 0820# suspends all calendars.
    • 0821# resumes all calendars.
    • 0822# activates a new calendar. You must enter this code after you modify the calendar, or the changes will not be activated.
    • 0830# activates the main calendar.
    • 08301# through 08320# manually activates the Day Schedule numbered 01 through 20.

 

Accessing the Bell Schedule

Open your web browser and go to:

  • ADE
    • http://pa-37.ade.mps.k12.mi.us
  • CHE
    • http://pa-34.che.mps.k12.mi.us
  • DHS
    • http://pa-82.dhs.mps.k12.mi.us
  • JMS
    • http://pa-73.jms.mps.k12.mi.us
  • MHS
    • http://pa-81.mhs.mps.k12.mi.us
  • NMS
    • http://pa-72.nms.mps.k12.mi.us
  • PME
    • http://pa-16.pme.mps.k12.mi.us
  • SBE
    • http://pa-35.sbe.mps.k12.mi.us
  • WCE
    • http://pa-40.wce.mps.k12.mi.us

NOTE: Please get in touch with the helpdesk to request the username and password for your school's calendar. You can save it in your browser, so you don't have to enter it again.

 

Bell Schedules - Main Calendar and Day Schedules

The bell schedules are controlled by an event calendar where each event on the calendar acts as a command that the PA system will execute at a specific time. The main calendar is reloaded each day just after midnight, no matter what was activated the previous day.

Possible calendar events and their side effects:

  1. Load an alternate schedule.
    • This event is called a Day Schedule in the PA system.
    • This is useful for half days, assembly days, or testing days. 
    • NOTE: If the PA system is restarted while a Day Schedule is active (power outage or intentional), the Main Calendar will be reloaded. This happens because the system always starts loading the Main Calendar, and when it reaches a Day Schedule event, it will load that schedule; however, it starts loading from the current time, not the start of the day. If reloaded in the middle of the day, it will not read the event to load the Day Schedule, which will usually be the first event. You will need to manually activate the alternate schedule if this happens using #083XX, where XX is the schedule number from 01 to 20.
  2. Ring a bell.
    • This event is called a Tone Distribution in the PA system.
  3. Silence a speaker.
    • This event is called a Room Exclusion in the PA system.
    • The speaker can be silenced if a room should not have bells or announcements during a specific time.
    • WARNING: A silenced speaker will not receive emergency announcements, ALICE paging, or anything else. The speaker is completely off during that time. Consider using an Exclusive Distribution instead. An Exclusive Distribution will allow you to ring a bell to everything but a specific set of speakers. For paging, you can also use Exclusive Paging, as described in the previous section. If you do silence a speaker, you should consider limiting the duration of the silence to just when you make announcements, for example.

NOTE: There are other types of events. Please do not use the other event types.

 

User Interface

 

Loading Settings

 

Saving Changes

 

View Main Calendar

 

Alternate Day Schedule - Used for assemblies, half days, exams, etc.

 

Add a new event and select the event type.

Adding an event can be done by double-clicking on a time slot in the calendar window or clicking Add New Event on the menu on the left.

NOTE: Clicking Add New Event will add a new event to whichever calendar or schedule is displayed on the screen. If you are viewing the main calendar, it will add the event to the main calendar. If you are viewing a day schedule, it will add the event to that schedule. Also, you will only see the Recurrence tab when adding events to the main calendar because day schedules do not have their own recurrence; they can only gain recurrence by adding a recurring Day Schedule event to the main calendar.

 

Some events require selecting zones to which an event will be distributed or which will be excluded.

 

Select the tone. Tone 30 is the default for most schools.

 

If this event will not repeat, set the time and date and click Save Single Occurrence.

 

Otherwise, fill out the recurrence tab and click Save Recurrence instead.

 

To delete an event, click to select it on the schedule and press the "Del" key on the keyboard. Confirm to delete.

 

Changes will not be saved until you send it to the server. Click the send button.

 

The changes still will not be activated until you reload the calendar. Dial 0822# on the CareHawk PA phone or #0822# from your main office desk phone. You might need to wait a second until you hear silence (there is no tone) after pressing the first #.

 

Activating an Alternate Day Schedule

You can activate a day schedule manually by dialing the code explained in the first section of this document, or you can schedule it in advance by adding a Day Schedule event to the Main Calendar. Add the Day Schedule event as the first event on the desired day, and it will switch to the alternate schedule at that time instead of following the main calendar.

IMPORTANT: When the Day Schedule event is encountered, the PA system will ignore all other events from the main calendar and follow only the alternate day schedule afterward. This means you do not need to delete or edit the recurrence of other events on the main calendar. Just make sure the event to load the alternate day schedule happens before any other event on that day. Also, if the PA system loses power or resets in the middle of the day, it starts loading from the main calendar and only executes events from the current time onward. In this case, you need to reactivate the alternate schedule manually because the event to switch schedules will be skipped if it is in the past.

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