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High school district redesigns its Web site

by Dave Boyce

There's a new Web presence out there for a fairly old San Mateo County institution: the Sequoia Union High School District.

The redesigned Web site is smooth, with greenish gray accents and a soft-focus image along the top border of sunlight streaming through redwood trees.

Clicking the mouse is less important, at least on the home page. As the cursor moves over the headings arrayed under the district's name, menus now appear automatically.

The home page includes a news crawl. Its initial content: an invitation to come back soon, and advertisements for the district's Facebook page and for following Superintendent Pat Gemma on Twitter.

Along the left side and bottom of the page are links to frequently consulted pages and time-sensitive matters, including a calendar and district news.

The site design is based on a template by Schoolwires, a Pennsylvania company that focuses on Web sites for K-12 school districts. The district paid $10,280 for the template, and has used it for five school sites, including Menlo-Atherton High School, , Sequoia district spokeswoman Bettylu Smith said in an e-mail. A year of software upgrades will run another $6,470.

Ms. Smith managed the customizing and is responsible for the content, she said. Assisting her was Kirsten Owens. An advisory group included a board member, staff and parents.

The site has a new address: sequoiadistrict.org — though the old one (www.seq.org) still works.

The pages on the budget list categories for $103 million in spending priorities for the 2008-09 school year. The district spent $41.8 million on classroom instruction, for example, and $8 million on special education, $5.6 million on school administration, and $5.3 million on counseling and guidance, according to the Budget Summary.

The budget summary does not break expenses down by school or by individual program, as Sequoia Trustee Sally Stewart has called for.

Charter schools received close to $2.8 million. The previous Web site made no mention of charter schools, but the redesigned site lists them alphabetically, with links to their home pages. To find them, you must first click on the Schools heading or the Overview menu item and scroll down.

The Parent Resources page connects visitors to links for state Department of Education Web sites and the nonprofit EdSource. Some of the documents have broken links because they extend to more than one line.

The Virtual Tours page links to audio slide shows of notable facilities in the district, including the new performing arts center at M-A and the robotics program and Green Academy at Woodside High.