If your school or district Web site is like many others, it is probably out of date. If so, you are sending an unintended message to your community, your parents, and potential students or new hires. The message is that either nothing good is happening at your school or you don’t care enough to let anyone know. Well, you and I know that probably isn’t the case at all, but perception definitely becomes reality in the case of an out-of-date Web site.

So, what is a must?

The calendar for starters. It should have all the current events and activities that would be important for a parent or student to know. And, an interactive calendar where parents can sign-up for reminders or add events that are of particular interest to them would be optimal.

The News page would be another critical area to keep current. This is the “Toot Your Own Horn” area of the site is the perfect way to highlight all the good that is happening. As much as educators complain about being unappreciated and undervalued, we don’t do a very good job of letting the public know all the great things happening within our hallowed halls. Your Web site is the perfect forum to improve public perceptions–use it!

Easy access to information like:

•School Menus
•Job Applications
•Job Openings
•Newsletters
•Contact info for departments and staff

These are just a few suggestions, and there are many opportunities to enhance your site as a communication resource. The trick now is to get all the various sources that maintain this information to funnel it to the Web site. Suggestions for handling that is a topic for another posting!