Hashtags

Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context (labels) to Twitter posts or "tweets". Hashtags are created simply by prefixing a word with the pound sign: #hashtag. Here are the list of hashtags I use regularly:

     #StVrain - Posts about the district, containing "St. Vrain Valley School"

     #SVVSD - Posts about the district, containing the district's initials "SVVSD"

     #WWWRSS - Post from the RSS feed on the St. Vrain Valley School District's main web page

High Schools

     #EHS - Posts about Erie High School in Erie, Colorado

     #FHS - Posts about Frederick High School in Frederick, Colorado

     #LHS - Posts about Longmont High School in Longmont, Colorado

     #LYHS - Posts about Lyons High School in Lyons, Colorado

     #MHS - Posts about Mead High School in Mead, Colorado

     #SHS - Posts about Niwot High School in Niwot, Colorado

     #SCHS - Posts about Silver High School in Longmont, Colorado

     #SHS - Posts about Skyline High School in Longmont, Colorado

How SVVSDNews Works

SVVSDNews is primarily an automated Twitter account focusing on news about the St. Vrain Valley School District. To automate this account I used two free online services: Google Alerts and Twitterfeed. 

Google Alerts is a handy service designed to let you know when you are posted about on the web. It allows you to get periodic updates by email or RSS feed whenever Google finds something new online that meets your search criteria. For SVVSDNews, I created an alert that searches for "St. Vrain Valley School" and adds to an RSS feed.

Twitterfeed is a service that periodically checks a specified RSS feed and tweets any new entries. Every half hour Twitterfeed checks the RSS feed created by my Google Alert and posts up to two tweets. Twitterfeed also checks the RSS feed on the district's main web page and posts anything new from there.

One caveat about this system is occasionally things are tweeted that are not really about the school district. Real estate seems to be the biggest problem. A number of real estate web sites include the district's name in their postings. Today I added a filter to Twitterfeed that will exclude posts containing the word "realty".

Lastly, I have created this blog space so I can have my own place to post if I come across news from other sources.

Lefthand Canyon Fire Evacuation

Lefthand Canyon Fire Evacuation Zone Affecting parts of Silver Creek Feeder System

As a result of the Lefthand Canyon Fire, an evacuation zone has been implemented. The evacuation zone has extended to the western side of the District affecting parts of the Silver Creek Feeder system.

Students who live west of Hwy 36 between Nelson and Lefthand Canyon are in an evacuation zone and will be held at their school until a parent or guardian can arrange to have them picked up.

For more information, contact your local school and continue to monitor the District website.

-via SVVSD Email to Parents