Cheney Schools Now On The Web

Thu., Feb. 24, 2000

By Carlos Acevedo carlosa@spokesman.com

Cheney School District has a Web site now, where surfers can learn about the 3,500-student school district or any one of its seven schools.

With many changes occurring in Cheney schools, officials decided they needed to supplement traditional communication - such as newsletters and meetings - with new technology.

“It became apparent that we needed to get information out to our parents quickly,” said district technology coordinator Patti Dean.

That information has included providing news on the upcoming bond and levy, for instance.

Featured prominently on the top of the district’s home page, an icon labeled “Levy Facts/Bond Facts,” leads the viewer to a page that explains in detail the capitol projects bond and the maintenance and operations levy proposed by the school district. District residents will consider the measures on the March 14 election ballot.

Also, each school has a link to the site that will be updated at least once a month. Dean has developed uniform “template,” pages for each school and soon visitors will be able to retrieve information on school staff and upcoming events, Dean said.

The site is still being refined, Dean said, and she welcomes suggestions for how it can be improved. “We built this for the community to accommodate their needs,” she said.

She received her first request recently via an e-mail in which someone asked that she post the schools’ lunch menu. To honor that request quickly, Dean placed a temporary simple menu graphic on the site, but plans to replace that with a higher quality image in the future.

The Web site costs little more than the Web page design programs, Dean said. The school district owns the Web server, and a volunteer at each school updates the school sites.

“It’s just out of the kindness of their hearts,” Dean said.

Cheney School District hit the Internet Jan. 25. Since then, 500 people have checked out the site, according to the hit counter.

“That’s pretty good for four weeks,” Dean said.

This sidebar appeared with the story: ON THE WEB

To visit the Cheney School District Web site, go to www.cheneysd.org.

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