April 7, 2025

Dear families,

We are always working to improve and simplify communication between you and Colstrip Public Schools. Keeping up with your child’s coursework and their teachers directly impacts their well being both in the classroom and at home. School communication plays a big part in all of this, but it’s often not set up to be as simple and easy to access as it could be.

That’s what we’re working to solve. This month, we’re adding a new feature called Rooms to our district apps. The Rooms app enables you to have two-way parent-teacher conversations and keep up with classroom announcements. It’s not really a new app, but an upgrade to an existing app you might already be using; the Colstrip Public Schools MT mobile app (also called the Colstrip 19 app).

If you don’t yet have this app on your personal smart device, we highly recommend you download it. It’s free and available for Apple and Android devices.

The Colstrip Public Schools MT mobile app currently offers:

• Live feed updates 

• District and school news

• Upcoming events

• Breakfast and lunch menus

• Push notifications for important and urgent announcements

With Rooms, you’ll have access to even more exciting features like:

• Two way messaging with teachers, staff, and coaches

• Classroom announcements, reminders about coursework, and materials

• Behavior tracking for celebrating good behavior and academic achievement

• Automatic translation

So what does all of this mean for you? 

This means that you don’t need another app or tool to keep up with your child’s teachers and coursework. You’ll be able to find the majority of school and district information in one place: within our Colstrip Public Schools MT app.

On April 15, you'll receive an invite to Rooms by email or text. Once you receive the invite, you'll follow the link on your browser to create a login. The invite will go to the contact information the District has on file for you.

After you’ve created your login, you can access Rooms through the Colstrip Public Schools MT app. Once you’re there, you’ll see a toggle at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Just touch Rooms to get started. If you have multiple children attending our district, you’ll see them both listed in the menu section of Rooms.

What About Class Dojo? (for Pine Butte Elementary classes)

The school year is almost done. Your student’s teacher might not start using Rooms right away. If they already have a communication plan with you, plan using that until the end of the school year. At Pine Butte, teachers are using the Class Dojo app for communications. This will continue for the remainder of the school year. Your student’s teacher will let you know which app to use.

Should You Register for & Download the App?

Yes. Please register for an account to be ready for next school year when Rooms will be used in all classrooms. A cool thing with Rooms is that your student’s class information updates when their Infinite Campus class schedule is updated.

We hope Rooms offers you a richer, simpler—and ultimately—easier communication experience. You can read more about Rooms on our district’s FAQ page here. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions.

You can also email the Technology Supervisor, Evan Stewart (send a message from the Staff Directory page), if you have additional questions or experience problems with the app.