[thelist] Elementary School Websites

[Ken Kogler]

> Ideally?  "Make it INTERESTING"!

Naturally. :-)

> FIRST: For me, I'd LOVE to see an UP-TO-DATE (there! I said it!)
> CALENDAR on my kids' website... You know, one that actually has ALL OF
> THE UPCOMING EVENTS at the school

Already in the works. We're moving to an intranet-based system that will
keep the master schedule calander in a database served with ASP, and
it's a fairly simple extenstion to make it available to the public as
well. We'd return less columns, but that's about it.

> ... requires more
> of a "process" (for someone to be designated and given
> responsibility/accountability for keeping it up to date) than it is a
> design issue, but still, good design can work wonders for a website
> here!

You've touched on a very important point, and one that I forced the
school to face before I ever put pencil to paper and starting working on
the information architechure for this site. We've got a very clear
division of labor and everyone has their own little area they're
responsible for. This should help keep things up to date and make the
site a place that parents want to visit throughout the week.

> SECOND: In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if you could build some
> sort of FLASH preview right on the school's home page that would
> basically roll through the next 2-3 "Upcoming Events" (with pictures,
> sounds or music, or even a voice-over talking about the event) and
> when clicked upon would link to the Calendar page, that would be
> really cool, and keep the parents coming back for more! (OK, you
> asked for my "ideal"...)

That's getting a bit far, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to build an
in-house library of stock photography for each annual event. We could
use it on the website to be sure, but also in newsletters, etc... 

> THIRD: OH YEAH - and DON"T FORGET (an oft-overlooked but HUGELY
> HELPFUL thing, for both kids and parents) - TRY TO PUT AN UP-TO-DATE
> SCHOOL LUNCH MENU/SCHEDULE UP!!!  

Way ahead of ya.

> ... a little "What's Up Today?" or "Today's Briefs" section

I had done this for a previous site, and it would serve us well here,
too. Thanks for the reminder.

> FOURTH: Oh yeah, also:  how 'bout a "Profile" section, that has
> pictures (or better yet, brief video clips!!!) of all of the key
> staff members 

Our principal would be very against this, but I think it's cool. I'd
like to have some sort of section dedicated to the faculty so that
parents can read their certifications and put their minds at ease, and
also offer up some lighter information so that the kids can make a more
personal connection with their teachers.

> SIXTH:  A "School Board re-cap" page might be nice, highlighting key
> school board decisions, policy changes, etc...

As a parent, would you really read the school board minutes if they were
made available to you?
 
> FINALLY: All of the things that you suggest in your list sound good,
> except one that I feel a bit "squishy" about....school records. I
> guess I'd have to think long and hard about that, before I'd want to
> see MY kids' school records up and available on-line....

It's a password-protected parents-only part of the site where they can
update their home address, phone number, etc as well as see their kid's
most recent report card and school transcript. At least that's how it
looks on the drawing table right now.

> See if the school has any ability (and better yet, an established
> practice!) to record video of student-related events... I'm thinking
> of my 5-year old son's Kindegarten Christmas concert that they put
> on, and how cute it would be to see a brief clip of one or two songs
> they did on up on the website!

It'd be nice, but that's going to be pretty low on the list. If I run
across a parent with the skills necessary to import, edit, and compress
video, then I'll turn 'em loose, but it's so time- and
bandwidth-intensive that it woldn't happen in the first year probably.
Nice idea though.

I do want to install Gallery or something similar so we can have a photo
gallery of all the events. It'd be great if I could figure out how to
make it "parent-contributable" as well so they can upload their own
photos for approval and publication.

--ken