On June 11, the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District launched the remodeled version of its website. The district made the decision to remodel its website because a new web vendor called FinalSite acquired its previous web vendor, Blackboard. The change in vendors required the district to migrate to the FinalSite platform. The transition started in early spring, taking several months of planning and training to execute.

District communications specialist Chris Connolly and teacher on special assignment Lisa Lukens led the efforts to make this transition. They worked closely with the FinalSite administration and used resources provided by the vendor to familiarize themselves with the platform, creating a website template that resembled the previous version. Afterward, they trained school web team members who have editing rights and support their individual school’s webpage. 

“Lisa conducted special, in-depth training sessions with school web members, as they are responsible for updating the school websites and providing website support and training for staff in their buildings,” Connolly wrote in an email response. “The trainings covered how to navigate the new platform, update content, manage pages and ensure accessibility and consistency across the site.”

The web team consists of all department chairs, as well as staff from the administration and library. The web team updates the district and school websites, either daily or as the need arises. All departments are responsible for making occasional updates or posts on the website that pertain to their roles within their school and in the district. At Conestoga, the web team is headed by librarian Brooke Hauer.

“We all work together and each person does their own area on the website. Everybody works together to make it as good as (it) can be,” Hauer said.

When remodeling the website, Connolly and Lukens aimed to preserve the overall look and feel of the previous site to minimize disruptions to families, students and staff. They prioritized accessibility and easy usage but also tried to take advantage of FinalSite’s advanced features such as more customizable templates and branding. They said the website has received positive feedback from district residents, attributing this response to their regular communication with community members to keep them informed and prepared for the transition.

“I’d say the website has a modern and minimalistic feel,” said senior and Computer Science club co-president Prranit Arora. “Initially you see that screen-wide image and the buttons are more orderly and there is limited options at once. I feel like it gives a more modern aesthetic that the school may want to portray.”

Vaishnavi Sriadibhatla can be reached at [email protected].