Bourbon School Board Questioning Rave App

A mobile app that connects local school districts to Crawford County 911 and first responders is under review by the Bourbon School Board.

Rave, which has been used in the county since 2019, costs the district around $2,200 per year. Superintendent Dr. Kyle Gibbs said at Thursday’s board meeting that “it doesn’t break the bank” but usage of the app has been going down every year.

Upon its introduction, Gibbs said Bourbon “was the poster child” for using the app. Cuba and Steelville, he said, have barely used it.

The app has been getting less usage and has been more of an internal communications tool for the staff at the elementary school, according to former principal Joe Obermark.

Gibbs told the board the middle school and high school never used the app. He doesn’t want to get rid of the app because then they might need it.

The app also has some issues because of unnecessary notifications. One wrong push of a button could also activate nearly every first responder in the area.

Rave was one part of a push to make schools safer. Initially pushed in April 2018 — two months after a school shooting in Parkland, Fla., — Crawford County Sheriff Darin Layman and Bourbon Fire Chief Steve Kimker encouraged school districts to embrace the app.

The system can process 21,000 texts per second and alerts can be sent to first responders in less than two seconds.

Kimker told the board that 911 looked at various companies, but none were on par with Rave.