Tangipahoa Parish Schools (TPSS) is implementing the Schoolwires Centricity2
unifying Web content management platform to help strengthen its
home-school connection and provide its district and 34 schools with a
professional web presence, it was announced today.
The Louisiana district, (www.tangischools.org)
which serves more than 19,000 students, is in the process of going live
with its new district and school websites. In the past, the district
had a well-rounded website that was managed by the district's Director
of Technology, Vicki Blackwell. However,
the website was difficult to populate and manage, limiting the amount of
fresh content and resources that could be added. Even though all TPSS
schools had a web presence, very few of the schools had up-to-date
websites because of the level of technical expertise and time required.
With Centricity2, designated webmasters at each school can
create websites populated with Web 2.0
tools. Also, teachers will be able to create individual websites to
increase and extend their communications with their students and
parents.
"By
giving parents and community members a window into each school and
direct access to teachers and others at the school, we can strengthen
our home-school connection which is a district priority," said Ms.
Blackwell. "We can increase our communications and bring the broader
community into our school setting."
The Schoolwires Centricity2 platform
will give webmasters at each school the tools they need to create
professional looking sites while still portraying the personality of the
individual school. In addition, parents will have access to much more
information about activities and events at the individual schools than
previously.
"The Schoolwires' platform
gives each school and each teacher the flexibility to be creative, and
it is so simple to use that it will easily improve communications at the
school level 100 percent. Community response to the district website
has already been enthusiastic; parents love the new parent section, and
our principals and other users are excited to begin using the new www.tangischools.org to communicate with their constituents," said Ms. Blackwell.