HILLMAN — A new software system is in place at Hillman Elementary School to make it easier for parents to pick up students at the end of the school day.

PikMyKid is a smartphone app that allows parents to communicate a code to the school to let them know they’re on their way to pick up their child, Hillman Community Schools Superintendent Carl Seiter said Friday.

“It allows us to not have a mass exit of kids all out the doors, running to parked cars for mom and dad,” Seiter said. “It’s going to help protect the kids, in that sense. Traffic congestion around p.m. pick-up can be dangerous for kids.”

The app will cost the district about $2,650, which will come from the $176,000 the district received from a property-tax-supported sinking fund voters approved in November. A sinking fund is designed to address building repairs and upgrades. Voters approved a 1-mill tax for 10 years that will generate about $176,000 each year for the district and cost the owner of a $100,000 house about $50 a year.

The code sent to the school from a parent will let the school know which parent or authorized person is picking the student up.

Seiter said that makes officials certain a student is being picked up by the appropriate person.

“This is our attempt to produce a nice, calm, orderly fashion for parents to pick up their kids in a safe manner,” Seiter said.

The new app will be a learning process for the school. Seiter said the first week is usually organized chaos for school, so he asks parents to be patient while the process with the app is refined and everyone learns how to use it.

“It’s another layer of security to ensure that the transfer of children at the end of the day back to the parents, grandparents, the daycare provider, whoever is picking them up is safe,” Seiter said.