School News

By Sara Bruestle

The Beacon

Visit the Edmonds School District Web site this week, and youll be in for a user-friendly surprise.

The district launched a new Web site on Dec. 6, designed for easier navigation and information sharing.

The new web site is funded by the voter-approved 2008 Technology/Capital Levy. Set up of the site cost the district a one-time fee of about $25,000. An additional fee of about $34,000 is to be paid annually to Schoolwires Inc. for hosting the site and maintaining the server.

It took six months to gather feedback from administration, staff and others in the community, and then redesign and rebuilding the Web site.

Websites today have become such an important tool in informing our community and keeping parents up-to-date in whats happening in our schools, and we hope that this will be an easier tool for them to use, said Jennifer Piplic, the districts Web content specialist.

The old Web site had problems. Depending on the Internet browser they used, not all visitors could access information on the site. With the new Website, whether they use Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari, visitors will be able to view and navigate the site.

Another problem was a lack of continuity between school Web sites. The site was slowly built over the course of five years by a number of webmasters, so portions of the site were designed differently than others.

Piplic likens the old Web site to a patchwork quilt.

We had different folks work on different portions of the site and it all just kind of got merged together with not a lot of community equity, she said. So if you went to our district Web site and then you went to a schools Web site, they looked very different.

With the new Web site, the information and features on the Web sites of all 35 schools in the district are cohesive, said Chris Kratz, office manager at Lynndale Elementary. Before she was an office manager, Kratz used to update the school Web site for Edmonds-Woodway High School.

These [school sites] are so much easier to use than the old ones were because its got a uniform design and you can go from school to school and you know youre going to find what youre looking for, she said.

The Web site also has several improved features, including e-mail notifications and a customizable calendar.

Registered users of the new district Web site can sign up to receive e-alerts, or e-mail notifications, when an area on the site theyre interested in is updated. Instead of visiting the site multiple times to check for updates, users can be notified via e-mail.

So if you were a parent at Meadowdale Elementary, and you wanted to know when they added new information to their school calendar, you could subscribe to those e-alerts and be notified when theres new updates, Piplic said.

The new Web site also has an online calendar with up-to-date information about the goings-on at Edmonds schools. Visitors can create their own calendar that merges all of the school and district events theyd like to know about.

If you have a child at elementary and at middle school, it can be difficult to keep up-to-date with all the different events that are happening, so [the customizable calendar] will be a resource that I think will be a huge benefit to our parents, Piplic said.

Kratz encourages parents and others in the community to start using the district Web site if they dont already.

People tend to think of the office as where they get their answers, but theyll be able to use the Web site in much the same way that they would use calling the office, she said. Its a really wonderful thing.

To learn more about the features on the new district Web site, go to www.edmonds.wednet.edu and click on the links under the News & Announcements tab.