The public schools website has undergone a major overhaul, with more information quickly available to students, staff, parents, and the community.
“This is a project we have been working on for eight or nine months now,” district Executive Director of Administration and Finance Monica Lamboy said of the updated www.chelseaschools.com.
For anyone worried that the work on the website has cost a lot of money, Lamboy said that wasn’t the case.
“This has been a 100 percent staff effort; we haven’t had any outside assistance,” she said. “There has been a tremendous team of people working on it.”
Highlights of the website include a navigation panel on the top of the homepage that easily allows visitors to navigate between the district and individual school pages.
The district homepage features the statement declaring the Chelsea Public Schools as a Gateway School District, as well as district news and upcoming events sections.
There’s also a live feed of the district Twitter and Facebook account on the homepage.
“As soon as we send out a post, it will go directly to the website,” said Lamboy.
One of the improved features of the website is the ability for staff to quickly post information, she added.
“We won’t have to go through a single point of contact like we have been doing on the current website,” said Lamboy.
The district page includes updated information on programs such as English as a Second Language and special education, while the school pages will highlight events and information relative to the individual schools.
Each school will have three buttons at the bottom of their homepage, highlighting academic focus; information on arts, music, and afterschool programs; and what’s new for the school year.
“All the school principals picked what they want to highlight for this year,” Lamboy said.
At last week’s meeting, several School Committee members praised the work done on the updated website.
“Anything I can think of seems like it is up there,” said Committeewoman Marisol Santiago.
School Committeeman Roberto Jimenez Rivera asked how much of the site is available in Spanish.
“The site does have a translation function, and we’ve tested it a number of times,” said Lamboy. “Everything we wrote, we tried to use plain language, which is the simplest, most direct way to say things to help facilitate the translation.”
Lamboy noted that all district event flyers are translated into Spanish, as well.