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High school student presents plan for a single Grand Island community calendar
Summary
A Grand Island High School student presented a 10-page plan and mockups for a single online calendar aggregating town, school and civic events. Board members praised the idea but flagged maintenance, vetting and staffing as open questions.
Sienna, a Grand Island High School student, told the Economic Development Advisory Board that the town currently "lacks a single centralized calendar that hosts all community events," and proposed an online joint calendar pulling together town and school schedules.
Her executive summary, she said, is about 10 pages and includes two visual mockups showing color-coded town and school layers, event detail pages and subscription options. "By streamlining information onto one platform, residents would no longer need to navigate multiple websites or rely on inconsistent communication methods," she said during the board's meeting.
Board members and the presenter discussed a technical approach built on standard iCal URLs and Google Calendar syncing. The presenter demonstrated how the town and Grand Island High School public calendars can be exported and aggregated into a central page that users can toggle, subscribe to, or copy into their personal calendars. She noted that many public-facing calendars already provide the feed needed for the project.
Members praised the concept but emphasized practical hurdles. The presenter warned that "there's gonna have to be someone constantly updating it," and the group agreed that ongoing maintenance — and who would staff it — remains the key implementation challenge. Board members suggested a phased pilot that would start with the town and school calendars and add vetted civic groups before considering businesses.
Several members urged the board to consult the town's technology advisory committee and recommended that the student share her full paper and Canva mockups so the committee and town staff can run a technical test. The presenter said she planned to bring the materials to a state presentation in Rochester and would share the paper with the board if school rules allow.
The board voted to take the next step of reviewing the student's materials and to seek technical feedback from the town technology advisory committee; they also briefly moved to an executive session to discuss the student project and recording concerns because the presenter is a minor.
