As staff and students return to learning this fall, they will find a newly designed website for School District 58. The new site, which officially launches Aug. 14, 2020, will offer easier navigation, a more modern design and better search features. The move is part of the goal to improve communications with families, staff and greater community.
“Our website is a critical communication tool and we hope that this refreshed ‘digital front door’ is more conducive to engaging with our parents and school community,” said Assistant Superintendent for Technology and Learning Dr. James Eichmiller.
In developing the site and design, the District used feedback from users and the community. The change will also allow the site to be hosted by a third party, which will manage security, bandwidth and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The current website is hosted by the District and includes significant costs for hardware and staffing resources.
District 58 began the website redesign process more than a year ago by gathering stakeholder feedback, reviewing website analytics and seeking school website exemplars. After interviewing top website hosts and sharing findings with different stakeholder groups , District 58 selected CampusSuite.
Over the course of six months, District 58 Technology and Community Relations staff worked closely with the vendor to develop a design that represents the District’s brand and meets the needs identified through family and staff feedback early in the process. District and school staff then migrated and developed content for the 800+ pages of the new website.
The website domain will remain at www.dg58.org.