The Fox C-6 School District’s website has a new look and a new address.
The district launched its new website July 1, changing its site address to foxc6.org.
“It was a good time for it to change,” said JP Prezzavento, communication and instructional technology coordinator, who oversaw the creation of the new website. “We already had the email domain, foxc6.org, that I believe we changed to in 2017. We thought if we are going to make that change, now was as good a time as any.”
The district also has switched to a new website provider.
Board of Education members voted unanimously to enter into a five-year contract with Blackboard and pay the company $21,500 per year to host the website and mobile app. Blackboard submitted the lowest of three bids for the service, according to board documents.
Fox previously used SchoolMessenger to host the website and mobile app and paid the company $21,970.62 last school year, school officials said.
Prezzavento said the new website looks cleaner and more contemporary.
“Overall, it is a much more modern look for our website, which is really the front porch of our school district,” he said. “We want that to look nice and be inviting for our families and community.
“This was a good opportunity for us to rebuild and reorganize our web presence from top to bottom. Our hope is that families and community members who go to our website are going to find it a little bit easier to find the information they need. Also, they are going to see some consistency from school site to school site.”
The first new feature visitors will see on the website is called a “hero video,” which is either a video or photo gallery at the top of the page.
On the main district website, there are videos or photos of students learning and school district events being held.
On the individual school websites, the “hero videos” are photo galleries of events at each building.
“(Website visitors) really like the ‘hero video’ on the front that features our kids and buildings a little bit better,” Prezzavento said. “Right now, every school has a photo gallery. We can go in and produce a video for each of those as well.”
The district currently does not have a mobile app, but Prezzavento expects a new one to be launched by late summer or early fall.
“The good thing about our website is that it is mobile friendly and really responsive,” he said. “If families go to our website on their mobile phone, it will be an app-like experience.”
Another important feature of the new website and provider is that updating pages on the site is easier, Prezzavento said.
“This is a much more modern platform,” he said. “It is more convenient, intuitive and there is a fast load time both for the community members using our website and staff members who are updating it. It is just a more pleasant experience all the way around.”