Over the years, SchoolCEO has published nearly 200 podcast episodes. While we’ve spotlighted many illuminating perspectives, one of the most impactful was Jamie Vollmer’s “blueberry story.” Vollmer is not an educator; he’s a businessman. He used to run the Great Midwestern Ice Cream Company—once lauded by People magazine as the best ice cream in America. Way back in 1988, he accepted an invitation to speak to Iowa teachers about what was wrong with schools. He came in with three assumptions: First, that schools needed to change; second, that the people inside were the problem; and third, that if they'd just run schools like businesses, everything would be fine. Those assumptions wouldn’t last for long.

Fifteen minutes into Vollmer’s presentation, the teachers stopped grading papers and started glaring. When he opened for questions, a 27-year veteran English teacher stood up. She asked about his ice cream ingredients—only the finest, naturally. She asked what he'd do if a shipment of blueberries arrived below his standards. "I'd send them back," Vollmer said.

"That's right. You would send them back. We can never send back our blueberries,” she said. “We take them all—big, small, rich, poor, hungry, abused, brilliant, creative, curious, cautious, frightened. We take them with ADHD and with English as their second language. We take them all, Mr. Vollmer. And that's why it's not a business. It's school." Ever since, Vollmer has been an advocate for public schools and the “all means all” mandate and mission, sharing his blueberry story in his speeches and workshops across the nation. 

“All means all” applies to more than just students. When you promise to serve all students, your communication systems need to reach all families, all stakeholders, your broader school community, everyone. Not just those who are ripe for engagement. But delivering on that promise takes more than just commitment—it takes the right tools.

Every one of your countless stakeholders has their own challenges and realities, and they’re all happening simultaneously. On any given evening, a parent might be checking their phone for schedule changes. A grandmother may be navigating your school app for the first time. A Spanish-speaking family may be running district communication through a third-party translation tool, hoping it’s accurate. This is what "all means all" actually looks like in practice: simultaneous communication with stakeholders who experience your district in completely different ways.

That teacher was right—as public schools, you don’t choose your students. You don't choose your families. That means you have a responsibility to communicate with all your families effectively, not just those who are easy to reach. When your communication infrastructure fails to serve everyone, it creates a two-tier system where privileged families get information effortlessly while vulnerable and disengaged families have to navigate fragmented chaos to get it.

When you promise to serve all students, your communication systems need to reach all families, all stakeholders, your broader school community, everyone. Not just those who are ripe for engagement."

Without integration, every communication tool you adopt adds to that chaos and actually reduces your reach. One vendor for your website. Another for parent notifications. A third for staff portals. A fourth for social media. A fifth for brand management. A sixth for community engagement. A seventh for board reporting. Seven logins, seven vendor relationships, seven points of failure.

Call it the complexity tax. The families who pay highest are your most vulnerable—the very "blueberries" the teacher was talking about. The grandmother can't navigate seven platforms. The hourly worker misses the notification because it went to the wrong channel. The English language learner’s family keeps missing details because they were lost in translation. This isn't a technology problem. It's an equity problem disguised as a technology problem.

You can't send back the blueberries your community sends you—nor would you want to. So you must build infrastructure that enables you to actually reach them.

Districts that work with Apptegy have made a decision that honors the blueberry principle: If they’re taking all students (and they must), they need systems that reach all families. Apptegy’s platform isn’t yet another tool—it’s a foundation for district communication that reaches all and delivers on education's inclusive mandate.

All In on Reach. Whether a facility emergency strikes at 5:52 a.m. or you want to celebrate a student success, a single administrative action lets your message reach each stakeholder group exactly as it should. You can send app notifications to connected families or make phone calls for those without smartphones. You can brief staff with role-specific instructions, send the board alerts or update your entire community. You can even provide culturally contextualized translations for multilingual households—all from one system. No family is left wondering if they missed something. No "blueberry" gets left behind because they couldn't navigate your seven-vendor maze.

All In on Brand. Your brand isn't your logo; it's your values. The teacher in the blueberry story  was defending a fundamental value: We serve everyone. Unified infrastructure means your communication reflects that value consistently. Every message, every channel, every stakeholder group receives information that says "You belong here"—not "Figure out our system or get left behind." Vendor sprawl and unknown logos push the very people you want close to you further away. That’s why Apptegy puts your district’s brand—not our own—at the center of all communication.

All In on Safety. At its heart, communication is about building trust. That’s why Apptegy has always invested in best-in-class security for websites and data. In 2025, we launched AI-powered moderation that proactively keeps staff, students and families safe. Not only does this feature prevent unsafe communication, it also saves administrators countless hours in the process.

This isn't just about choosing a vendor. It's about recognizing that mission-critical functions require mission-appropriate infrastructure. When your foundational promise is "We take them all," your communication systems must operationalize that promise every single day.

Most superintendents know their communication infrastructure has gaps. They've lived the 5:52 a.m. crisis. They've watched levy information fail to reach voters. They've seen new families excluded—not by policy, but by systems that didn’t engage them.

So the question isn't whether your systems have gaps. The question is: How much longer will you let your communication undermine the "we take them all" promise? Every day that your most vulnerable families struggle to navigate multiple fragmented systems, every day that privileged families receive information effortlessly by contrast, is another day "we take them all" remains aspiration rather than operational reality.

Apptegy has partnered with more than a third of all U.S. public school districts and many individual schools. We're all in on your mission: to serve every student by reaching every family, building community trust, and making sure that "all means all" is possible.

The teacher in the blueberry story was right: This isn't a business. It's school. In business, you can send back the blueberries. In public education, you take them all. And that's exactly why your communication infrastructure must be better, more sophisticated and more inclusive than any business would ever need—to reach them all.

Every day that your most vulnerable families struggle to navigate multiple fragmented systems, every day that privileged families receive information effortlessly by contrast, is another day "we take them all" remains aspiration rather than operational reality.