Next school year, parents in Muskogee Public Schools could hear about school emergencies, school closings, even school carnivals on their home computers, cell phones or BlackBerries.

Plus, Muskogee High School students and faculty could face more secure entrances to their buildings.

MPS officials are studying various programs to help speed and improve their ability to get mass messages out to parents and to improve high school security.

Administrators looked at one such system, offered by Honeywell Building Solutions, on Tuesday.

Jim Wilson, assistant superintendent for support and personnel, said officials are working to get proposals before the Muskogee Board of Education this summer and to have systems installed by the start of the 2008 school year in August.

MPS Campus Police Chief Dan Hall said officials are looking at systems that do several things.

“We want to update our camera systems at our school entrances,” he said. “We want more of a secure campus.”

All schools except Muskogee High School allow visitor entry only at the main entrance and have magnetically locked doors and security cameras at each entrance. Visitors ring a doorbell and the school staff looks through the camera before letting the visitor in.

The high school has a security gate at its parking lot entrance, but no security access cameras at its building entrances.

Hall said he looked at security access systems at several area schools, most notably Jenks High School.

“They have the system like what we’re looking at,” he said. “That system also has attendance controls and truancy controls.”

Such systems could help track students who are cutting class, he said.

Wilson said the district also is looking at security cameras for buses.

“But there is a lot of cost involved,” Wilson said, adding that the systems could cost between $100,000 and $200,000.

The district also is looking for systems to quickly notify parents of emergencies or school closings.