McKinney ISD became smart phone savvy just in time for the coming school year. Parents, students and staff can now access district and school information on their smart phones through a new, free application called misdGO. "We wanted to take critical information from our website and student information system and provide it directly to our students and parents," said Cody Cunningham, chief communications officer for McKinney ISD. "In many cases, our parents and students access their phones far more than a desktop computer." The misdGO application provides real-time news alerts, daily food menus for the elementary, middle and high schools, updated event calendars, maps of the district, students' grades and live score updates for McKinney schools' sports games. McKinney ISD's communications staff helped create misdGO over the last six months through its partnership with WillowTree Apps, a mobile application development company based in Charlottesville, Va. WillowTree Apps, founded in 2007, was one of the first companies nationwide to launch an iPhone application. It developed Spotasaurus, a popular consumer-focused, location-based iPhone app that shows drivers the closest parking garage with available spots and pricing. The company had in recent years developed an application similar to misdGO, only it was designed for the University of Virginia and other colleges. Tobias Dengel, chief executive officer (CEO) of WillowTree Apps, said that McKinney ISD contacted several developers before asking WillowTree to create an offshoot of its university application.
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