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Timberlane board previews redesigned district website with AI search, mobile app and improved accessibility
Summary
District technology staff demonstrated a redesigned Timberlane Regional School District website (vendor: Finalsite) featuring AI‑powered search, consolidated navigation, translated pages and a new mobile app; board members asked for tweaks to the app’s homepage search placement and discussed using the site for Right‑to‑Know transparency.
Ken, a district staff member, demonstrated the Timberlane Regional School District’s redesigned website and mobile app, explaining that the vendor Finalsite replaces an older, hard‑to‑search system and removes SharePoint as the public‑facing document backend.
The presentation summarized problems with the old site — cluttered front pages, limited search and SharePoint‑hosted documents — and described features of the new platform: consistent navigation and document tagging by content type and school year; an AI chatbot/search available on every page; school‑level and district event calendars; a staff directory; a community bulletin board; biweekly email pushes; and a free iOS/Android app. Ken said the AI search’s knowledge base is the site’s documents and pages and cautioned users that the chatbot is for “informational purposes only” and can return stale information pulled from older minutes or pages.
Board members praised the clearer navigation and accessibility features. Ken demonstrated the site’s ADA tools (contrast and reading aids) and the language translation drop‑down that can render the entire site in dozens of languages. A board member who tested the new mobile app said the app’s home screen lacks a front‑page search button and asked that search be added to the app’s main navigation to improve access; Ken agreed to investigate. The board also discussed using the site as a public hub for Right‑to‑Know requests so residents could see prior requests and documents and reduce duplicate requests.
Why it matters: the new site is intended to make district documents, events and contact information easier for families and community members to find and to provide an auditable, more transparent record of materials the district publishes. The AI search can surface event dates and policies quickly, but the district cautioned that staff will monitor and correct AI responses while the system matures.
What’s next: Ken said internal staff log‑ins (previously on SharePoint) will be migrated over the summer and that he will follow up on the app search placement and on ways to integrate Right‑to‑Know request records into the site for board review before broader publication.
