rss
mobile
Feeds
Students can use the sites to take online quizzes, juggle athletics practices and club meetings, blog with their classmates and communicate with teachers after school.
"We're hoping this will help build the connection between the classroom and the home," said Emilee MacPhee, district Web content manager. "We all know students today are digital learners. They don't want to sit down with a book and hear a lecture. They want to engage."
The new sites went live last month, and schools will add content before classes begin in August. Teachers will be expected to maintain individual classroom sites by January, MacPhee said. The sites will be integrated into the district's main student information system.
The new websites offer a consistent format for the district's elementary, middle and high schools. Last year, a revamped website was launched for the district.
MacPhee said the school sites are meant to be interactive. Instead of simply viewing the content generated by teachers and school administration, parents and students will be encouraged to contribute to the sites. For example, teachers and principals will have blogs on which parents and students can comment.
Through a secure login, the sites will give parents access to their child's grades, attendance, standardized test scores, discipline information and unofficial transcripts. Parents will have to present a photo ID at their child's school before gaining access, MacPhee said.
She said one login will allow parents to access all of their children's information so they don't have to visit separate sites for different schools.
MacPhee said the schools will ensure that students who don't have Internet access at home will be able to use the websites. Teachers will give them time during the school day to complete online assignments. The district also is working with libraries, churches and other community organizations to provide student access.
The websites are hosted by Denver-based SchoolFusion. It will cost about $40,000 to host the sites this fiscal year, but the district expects more than half the cost to be reimbursed by the federal E-Rate program, said Mike Brandau, of the district's finance office. The program gives schools and libraries a discount on telecommunications and Internet access.
