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District previews new website, search and "Let's Talk" communications rollout; pilots a unified school app
Summary
District technology staff described a June go-live for a new Apogee-powered website with improved mobile navigation, smart search, staging approvals and event calendar consolidation; staff also reported expanding "Let's Talk" messaging and piloting a unified communication app for schools and transportation.
The district's information-technology team presented a staged transition to a new Apogee-based website and expanded customer-service and communication tools intended to improve search, event calendars and parent-staff interaction.
Scott Hanson, chief technology officer, said the district began transition work in October and has scheduled a go-live for June. "Go Live is scheduled for the June," Hanson said. The new site will add a smart/custom search, translation persistence, mobile optimization, staging with approval queues for school content and an integrated calendar view that can consolidate district, athletics and school event feeds.
Genesis Cipriano, site-support and training manager, described a live-feed feature for timely posts and an expanded "Let's Talk" platform that routes family inquiries into tracked workflows with response options by phone or email. The district reported 15,683 total "Let's Talk" dialogues to date from a phased rollout. Cipriano and Hanson said the platform improves tracking and response times compared with ad-hoc email inboxes and allows analytics on response time and satisfaction ratings.
Staff also described a pilot of a unified mobile communication app (a commercial product referenced as a pilot) used at four schools and by transportation for scenarios such as late buses or event cancellations. Hanson said the pilot has shown positive feedback and potential cost savings; staff reported a possible $20,000 reduction versus continuing the current vendor, though procurement and principal feedback will determine final recommendations.
Other planned features include calendar syncing so community members can filter events by athletics, arts or individual-school calendars, and an approval queue so school administrators can review content before it posts. Staff emphasized training and an incremental rollout: departments are being added to "Let's Talk" and the pilot will inform a May recommendation to the superintendent. The board asked for demos and requested options for board access to live-feed posting and workflows that route constituent messages to appropriate board members.
No board action was taken at the workshop; staff will continue pilots and bring procurement or contract recommendations back to the board.
