By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Parents and students on the go looking to stay up-to-date on happenings in the Alabaster City School System now have another option to do so, as the system recently launched its first mobile app.

ACS rolled out the app to its employees a few days before the start of the 2016-2017 school year, and posted a link to the app on its Facebook page a little more than a week later.

“The app is something we are trying as another way to reach our students and parents,” said ACS Technology Coordinator Anthony Kingston. “We know many business have apps, so we wanted to be able to offer that to our parents and students as well.”

The free app is available on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play store, so it works on both major mobile phone platforms, Kingston said.

With the app, users can keep up with the latest ACS news and events, sign up for anonymous alerts, check sports scores and view photos from ACS happenings.

The app also allows users to sign up for news from specific schools ­– allowing them to only receive information from those schools – view a directory of school personnel and link to the system’s social media accounts.

Parents can also use the app to access their students’ attendance and grade data, Kingston said.

“It’s still a work in progress,” Kingston said, noting the system is working to iron out a few issues with the app’s events calendar. “Overall, the response we’ve gotten has been very positive.”

Kingston said the system has plans to add more features to the app, such as tying it directly to the ACS website and adding a feature for in-app notifications.

“It’s just another way we are trying to connect with our students and parents,” Kingston said.