School officials say the new Waltham public schools Web site will unify the district online.
Officially launched last Monday, the new site easily allows parents to browse school calendars, provides access for 50 school officials to manage content and has a shorter address - www.walthampublicschools.org.
Sandra Roby, director of instructional technology and library media services, created the original site in the mid-'90s.
"It was long overdue," Roby said Friday. "We had very outdated technology. The way it was updated was completely out of date. We're at that point where people are relying on the Web to get information now, so we decided we'd bring forward a Web site for all the different groups of people that will use it."
The School Committee asked the School Department to improve the Web site last year.
Plans are now in place to train administrators and directors on how to use the site in July and August with hopes of having it in full use by the coming school year.
"The site has the capability for having 50 Web publishers to create content on the site," Roby said. "Instead of having one person in the district who would publish the information on the site, we can now have 50."
Roby said employees who will upload information to the site will include Superintendent Peter Azar and his administrative staff, along with principals, assistant principals, school secretaries and program directors. They will update calendars, upload photos and videos and write about their schools.
The look of the site was the result of public surveys and meetings among school staff.
According to Roby, school officials surveyed Waltham residents a year ago to find out what they wanted most in a site for Waltham public schools. The survey was linked to the district's old site, which was hosted by the city's Web site.
"We noticed in the survey people really valued calendar information as one of their top priorities," Roby said. "Now each school has a calendar and different people can put calendar info into that. The district has a calendar as well."
School officials analyzed the surveys and then held several meetings to go over the changes.
"All the administrators and even some teachers volunteered to be a part of a group who talked about what they would want to see in a district page and an individual page for each school," Roby said. "We're trying to be more user-friendly, so different types of people will be able to more easily find information that's key for them."
For school employees like Lisa Campana, coordinator for the district's Parent Information Center, updating information online for parents was cumbersome with the old site.
"Initially with the old Web site, we had to send everything to Sandra Roby who would graciously upload everything for everyone. That was tedious for her and us," Campana said. "Now with the new Web site, those of us who've been designated with rights can get into individual pages and update them. For the parent center, I'm constantly updating information throughout the school year."
Campana was also a member of a design committee that helped create the new site.
"We really looked at how can we best service the families of Waltham public schools and what they were looking for," she said, "especially for those parents that have more than one child in different buildings to easily navigate between pages and for people outside of the district that need to find school locations, information and contacts."
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com.
