Last fall, Lake Washington School District unveiled its new district Web site. Based on feedback from staff, students and parents, the site was designed with the goal of being information-rich and easy to navigate. That site has since won four awards and users have given it good reviews.

However, Web sites for each school were not at all consistent and the quality and quantity of information varied. This fall, all district schools are developing new school Web sites, 17 of which have now been launched.

Last year, Project Manager Laurie Pelham, assisted by members of the district Web redesign team, began working with principals and school webmasters to develop a plan for a consistent format for school sites. She continued the research with staff, students and parents, and found the same needs as revealed in the District site research – lots of good information in a site that is easy to navigate. In addition, the goal for these sites was to create a more consistent look and structure so that parents with students in more than one school would find things in the same places.

“We know these sites serve a reference function for families – what’s the phone number, when is the event, what is the registration process,” noted Pelham. “If there is a consistent structure and system, it makes things that much easier when parents have to look something up on several different but related sites.”

Two slightly different formats resulted from this work, one each for elementary and for secondary schools. The site architecture and the design echo the district site: they are similar but meet the specific needs of school Web sites. Elementary school sites are simpler than junior high and high school sites, generally with fewer sections. School colors and mascots ensure that each school expresses its identity on their site. Basic school information, including school address and phone number, attendance phone number, names of key staff and school office hours are prominent on the site home pages.

One popular tool that has been added to the district calendar and is placed on the home pages of the new school Web sites is the Tandem online calendar. This district-wide electronic calendar enables parents to track events at school, even if they have students in more than one school. The district Web sites displays a calendar with all events in the district, which can be filtered to show specific schools or buildings. Each school Web site automatically shows a filtered view of the calendar with just the events for that school showing. Parents can register so that every time they open the calendar system, they can sign in and see a personalized view of selected events. In addition, parents can sign up for RSS feeds of events so that any changes will be automatically communicated. Calendars can also be downloaded to popular calendar programs such as Outlook.

The school sites are built on a Microsoft Office SharePoint platform. The use of this platform has enabled more staff members, including those who do not know HTML, to take part in developing content. Principals, for example, can add their messages to the site through a rich text editor. This feature makes it easier for schools to keep their sites up to date, providing better and more timely information.

Schools that have launched their new sites include: Audubon, Carson, Einstein, Franklin, Frost, Juanita, Lakeview, McAuliffe and Sandburg elementary schools; Discover and International community schools; Inglewood, Kamiakin, Kirkland and Northstar junior high schools; and Eastlake and Redmond high schools.

Other schools are readying their sites for launch while some are at the beginning stages. The goal is for all schools to launch their new sites by the end of this calendar year.

Check out the Lake Washington School District site at www.lwsd.org.

Issaquah District’s site also revamped

Issaquah School District’s new Web site is now up and running.

ISD has spent the last few months getting ready for the new site, previewing parts of it in the last few weeks before fully launching it.

The Web site features the updated logo and color scheme of the district.

The new site has several pull down tabs as well as easy access to the district’s calendar and news releases.

Each school’s Web site is also available from the main page. Links send user’s to the district’s page on the school, with hours, contact numbers and the addresses as well as a link to the school own Web site.

Check it out at www.issaquah.wednet.edu.