With a full-time Webmaster now in place, the CPS site is becoming a streamlined, modernized, upgraded and more user-friendly version of its former self.
"When it is finished, the new site design definitely will be easier to navigate," said Webmaster Dee Elmore, a communication specialist with the Public Affairs Department. "People won't have to click as many times to get the information they need. I think now people are more comfortable with technology, so there is a need for urgency. People want to get information faster."
Elmore, who was instrumental in setting up the original Web site in 1997, was appointed Webmaster and began modifying the site last June. Her first priority: getting rid of out-of-date information that had collected over time.
Under development is an intranet site with access limited to CPS employees and a new Web calendar with a database of district dates that can be viewed in different ways.
New on the CPS Web site:
An expanded search engine, which looks for a broader range of information
Board policies, such as the student Code of Suspension, Expulsion and Removal
Minutes of Board meetings
Employment ads
e-Board, an electronic summary of Board action posted the day after meetings
New school-locator maps
Elmore also is working with school staffs to help them develop individual Web sites that will link to the districtwide site. The school sites could feature such things as homework assignments, student literary work and ways for parents to be involved at the school.
Webmaster Elmore takes advantage of the Web's greatest asset: It can be updated instantly. Regular visitors to the site will notice that news releases sent to the media are posted quickly on the Web site.
"I consider it a living communications tool," Elmore said.
For example, in the wake of the recent terrorists attacks, the Web site became a fast way to connect parents to the district's staff of school psychologists. By early afternoon of September 11, advice from the psychologists on ways to help children cope with the tragedy had been posted on the CPS Web site.
