Upgraded School Website will Save District Money

The Brookfield Public School District will start the 2010-2011 school year with a new and improved website to provide information to parents and the community in an easy to access format. The new website has been up and running since July 1, 2010, but is "a work in progress," according to Art Colley, director of Business and Technology for Brookfield Schools. The district switched to Power It as a vendor and according to Colley, "will be spending 60 to 70 percent less per year to maintain the site," even with substantial improvements.

The site has increased functionality and a new look that will be further customized with student and school photos over the next month.  In the coming school year the administration and Board of Education (BOE) will begin to use the video functionality of the site to provide streaming video of public meetings or other important school events to community members who do not currently have access to Channel 19 through Charter Communications.

Another feature that will enhance and simplify communication between parents and teachers is the Parent Portal, which is expected to be launched October 1. It will give parents the ability to access their child's academic information, enabling them to keep a close eye on how their children are doing as well as eliminating the need for certain paper based communications, such as progress reports.

The new site will simplify the process for staff and teachers to update or make changes to their class pages, making it easier to keep parents up to date on class goals, events and projects. Teacher and class sites have not all been designed or updated yet, although the basic training process has been completed for the staff.

A special section for District News is easy to find and visible on the main pages of the site.  For those who use an RSS Reader on their computer, there is a "subscribe" button allowing readers to add the schools news feed to applications such as Google Reader.