This month a new and vastly improved website for Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 made its debut. The new website is much more visually compelling than the cramped old website which was 10 years old.
The old website was very text-heavy while large, sharp photos of students are prominent on the new website, which debuted on Dec 4. Information is easier to find and the visual experience is much better.
Tina Corradino, the mother of two sixth-graders, is impressed with the new website.
“It’s nice,” Corradino. “Very clean and user-friendly.”
The new website is easier to navigate and is easier for staff to use and post items on. The website also is integrated with the district’s social media accounts, so items posted on the website can be posted simultaneously to the district’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“We’re excited to have the integration of social media and we think [it] will be a better communication tool and a better way for us to showcase all the great things that we’re doing in District 95,” said Superintendent Mark Kuzniewski.
The website was designed and will be maintained by Edlio, a company that specializes in designing websites for schools. Edlio is also used by Riverside Elementary School District 96. The old District 95 website was designed and maintained by Schoolpointe. The district will pay Edlio $4,200 a year to maintain the website.
District officials first began looking in earnest at changing websites about one year ago. They examined bids from four companies and chose Edlio. The district’s contract with Schoolpointe expired at the end of June.
District officials had hoped to have the new website up and running by the start of the school year in August, but the demands of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic delayed things.
“COVID kind of pushed all the timelines back,” said Amanda Pelsor, the district’s director of technology and innovation.
In addition to being much more colorful and visually appealing, the new website is easier for the staff to use. Pelsor said the previous website was cumbersome to work with. Pelsor loves that the new website is easier to work with and has a modern, up-to-date look.
“We are very excited about it,” Pelsor said.
Kuzniewski is even trying to post more things on Twitter.
“I’m not a regular Twitter user, but I am getting a little better,” Kuzniewski said.
