Oak Park schools unveil new web page

NAVIGATIONAL TOOL—The new website for the Oak Park Unified School District is www.oakparkusd.org. The site was redesigned with money from a school technology bond passed by voters in 2006. Oak Park schools introduced a new website recently that not only looks different from the old site but is more detailed and interactive, and has a new address—www.oakparkusd.org.

The redesign of the district's website features an updated, uniform look with common navigation elements for the administration and school sites. It allows users to customize components and move easily between each school and district office web page. Teachers can create their own pages, communicate more easily with students and parents, and post podcasts and blogs.

"I'm just so thrilled with the way it has unfolded because we do have a very powerful communication vehicle now," said Jane Mintz, district director of educational technology who led the website development and implementation along with Jay Greenlinger, Medea Creek Middle School dean of students. "Now it's very much a two-way street."

The home page is the same for each school, with similar drop-down menus. The banner features the district logo atop blue hills against a yellow background. Inside a sun rising over the hills are student photos that alternate every few seconds.

The changes make navigation easier for parents with children in multiple schools.

"Everything is in the same layout, so you're not hunting and pecking like you used to," said parent Jhana Petersen, who helped with the website development. "It's really cool for us at the high school because we have so much to communicate."

To help the community learn about the site and how to use it, presentations will be made in February during parent-faculty meetings at each school.

The project was funded through the $17.5-million C6 technology bond measure that Oak Park voters passed in 2006.

Schoolwires Inc., a national browser hosting and content management company, performed the technical work and will host the site at an annual cost of $7,000. The district paid about $13,000 for the overhaul, Mintz said. Forty percent of the total cost was offset by E-Rate, a federal telecommunications funding program, Mintz added.

The old websites were originally esablished in the early 1990s; they were antiquated and did not interface with one another, Mintz said.

"Among the highlights is an interactive district calendar that may be customized to include activities at more than one school.

"Parents can get the lunch menu from their children's schools, the (parent-faculty club) news from each site and the football schedule from the high school. When you call up the calendar, those pieces you selected will come up," Mintz said.

Students at Medea Creek Middle School and Oak View and Oak Park high schools have been registered as users and will retain their existing Zangle user names and passwords. Zangle is a web-based application which helps students, parents and teachers to manage schedules and schoolwork.

Parents may register to access areas of the site that are not viewable to the general public.

Teacher e-mail addresses will continue to use the old domain address of opusd.k12.ca.us but will eventually be switched over to the new address.

Teacher blogs, photo galleries and podcasts will be limited to registered students and parents, and all blog entries will be moderated before being posted, Mintz said. Teachers, who have been undergoing training, will each have their own web page that may be accessed from any computer anytime.

"Some teachers are starting to create podcasts as extensions of their activities. It's a great collaborative venue," Mintz said. "Our next step is for the kids to download to their iPods and study from home."

The website will evolve as new capabilities are added, Petersen said. Eventually, school registration and "e-alerts" will be added so teachers can send emails to inform parents and students of class updates.

Electronic report cards at the elementary school level are under discussion, and an online payment feature is being researched which would eliminate the need for students to bring checks or money from home for such things as field trips, Mintz said.

"We are just at the beginning of exploring all of the things we can do," Mintz said. "There's a lot of potential there."

Parent Susie Harris, who also worked on the redesign, is excited about the changes.

"I hope that parents will take full advantage of the website," Harris said. "It's a great tool for the community."