School officials say the the district's Web site will soon receive a major upgrade.
The new site will include a calendar, access for many school officials to manage content and 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's technology that's old. You can't easily update it, she said.
Roby is also the only person with access to update the site.
"So what we were looking for is a solution so we could easily have lots of people post to the Web site," she said.
Superintendent Peter Azar said having a user-friendly Web site that's frequently updated would be an asset.
"I think the most important thing is the new site is a user-friendly Web site, which currently isn't what we have now. The other important piece is providing links to important information," Azar said.
Roby said the School Committee asked the district to improve the Web site last year. City residents were surveyed last spring to see what they wanted on the site, Roby said.
"Calendar information was right up there. We will soon be able to have a calendar for each school," she said. "There will also be a search feature. If they don't understand the structure of the Web site or where we might have placed something, they can find what they are looking for."
Roby is working with school officials and Savvy Software Inc., which will help them create and manage the new Web site.
The new site has the potential to allow a minimum of 50 people to be able to post information on it, she said.
"I was happy to hear about the number of people that would be able to get in and change the copy," Azar said. "By having as many people change that, we'll be able to keep that Web site current and that's a critical piece."
Each public school will have its own page, she said.
School Committee member Robert Cincotta said the site upgrade is long overdue.
"I think they're on the right track. Certainly it's a lot better than what we have right now," he said.
MacArthur Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization member Paula Vass said it took two years for the organization to find a parent volunteer to run MacArthur's Web site. Vass said a centralized site would be a helpful tool, but added that she'd like the new site to connect to Parent Teacher Organization-run Web sites that parents have created and ran over the past years.
"I think that each school should have one uniform navigation and have them all pretty user-friendly," she said.
Roby hopes to have the site up and running by the spring.
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com.
