Overview
Every phone has a 4-digit extension, which can be dialed from any other phone on either campus. If you find a phone that does not have its extension number printed on it, please send a tech request referencing the room number and extension number. (The “office” display phones show their extension on their display.) Most regular North Campus phones have extensions starting with 1. The North campus switchboard is x1000. Most regular South Campus numbers start with 2 and x2000 is the South switchboard.
Some people have separate voicemail numbers, since they work in a location without a phone of their own. If the voicemail number starts with 45xx, it can be dialed like any other phone number on campus—but instead of ringing anyone’s phone, you will immediately reach voicemail. When you call the phone that is shared and no one answers, you will hear a menu offering choices for the correct voicemail box.
Current directories of everyone’s phone number and email address is on the Minnehaha website under About Minnehaha / Employee Search
To place an outside call, dial “9” and wait until you get a dial tone. Then dial your call normally.
Do Not Disturb mode can be set on any phone, preventing it from ringing. This is especially handy in classrooms. To activate DND, pickup the phone and dial #01. You will hear a beep as confirmation. Hang up. Pick up the phone and listen to the dial tone. If you hear only a few beeps periodically, you are in do-not-disturb mode. Dial the same code, #01, to de-activate and return to normal. Your dial tone will then be back to normal with continuous or quickly beeping if you have messages.
Message Light/Message Tone. Most phones have a message light that will blink when you have messages waiting. As the same time, your dial tone will sound like it is stuttering. To check your messages dial 2400 (eventually, this will change so you will dial 0 instead of 2400). Press # when you hear the message start. Follow the voice instruction to check your messages.
My light won’t go out! This sometimes happens. To manually turn your light off, pick up the phone and dial #3 and then your extension number. Hang up. If the light still comes back on, repeat this process. Sometimes it might take as many as five or six tries to get it to finally go out. Note, if this happens to you frequently, send a Tech Request to report the problem. It should not happen often.
Checking your voicemail. If you are on campus, dial 2400). From off-campus, dial 612-728-7740. In either case, when you hear the greeting start, press #. You will be directed to “Please enter your box number.” After you enter your voicemail number, you will be prompted for your password. Enter your password and you will hear a greeting and the menu.
An important choice is 3, from the main options menu. It is here that you record or change your greeting, record your name, and change your password. Be sure to change your password from the default. Hackers know to try default passwords to access a phone system and can then go in and use our phone access to make international calls resulting in huge charges for the school. You are not only protecting your own voicemail when you change your password, you are protecting Minnehaha from unauthorized phone charges.
Some extra shortcuts:
While you are listening to a message, you have the following options. Press:
- To start the message over from the beginning
- To skip the rest of the message, saving it in your “saved messages” area
- To skip the rest of the message, saving it back in your “new messages” area
- To skip the rest of the message, deleting it
- To adjust the volume
- To hear further options, such as sending a copy of the message to someone else
- No options here
- Rewinds 5 seconds—can be pressed repeatedly to go back in the message
- Fast-forwards 5 seconds—multiple times to skip forward in the message
- Pause/unpause
1 then 1 again will Skip greeting.
After the message has played, you will hear the date and time it was left.
What others can do while leaving you a message (or what you can do when leaving another MA employee a message). While the greeting is playing:
Press 1 to skip the rest of your greeting and start leaving your message right away. Useful if you want to leave long, informative message but not force people to listen to the entire message each time they call.
Or...
Press 3 to talk to someone else. The caller will be prompted for the extension they want or can choose to speak to the operator (the North Campus switchboard).
Calling from Off-Campus Options:
The main numbers: During business hours, call North Campus switchboard at 612-729-8321, South Campus switchboard at 612-721-3359, Bloomington Campus switchboard at 952-806-0066.
Some employees have direct numbers. We have a block of number (612-728-77xx) that can be programmed to go to any phone at North or South. For those who take a large number of phone calls or who often work after-hours, this is an efficient method of taking calls. Contact Jim Wald to request a direct phone number. They are in limited supply.
ALL voicemail boxes are directly reachable at any hour from outside the school through the voicemail system. Callers reach the information line at 612-728-7740. After hours, this line answers calls directly at North and South Campuses. The system presents a general greeting (school closing and weather information if applicable), and then offers a menu of options. The caller can enter any extension, and the call will be transferred to your phone automatically. Or if the caller does not know the extension and does not hear the item they want in the menu, the caller can press * for a directory of names. The directory asks for the first three letters of the last name and leads the caller through the possibilities.
Please be sure to send a Technology Request if you have problems with your phone or voice mail. In the event you do not have web access, leave a phone message for Merry Mattson at extension 1331.