Pittsburgh school district retools its website
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In the increasing competitive market for K-12 students, Pittsburgh Public Schools is ramping up its website to make its school choices clearer to families.
The district today is unveiling a redesigned website, its first major revision since 2009. The Web address -- www.pps.k12.pa.us -- remains unchanged.
"The goal with the new Web design was to try to improve the experience for our community and parent users," said Scott Gutowski, director of end user services.
The site features a "Discover PPS" tool that enables parents to see all of their district school choices based on their home address, including assigned schools and magnet schools. Schools also can be found on a map.
The tool also makes it easier for parents to learn about achievement and other data on each school.
"Now everything is all bundled," said Phill Cresswell, Web technologies administrator.
The site includes videos highlighting school programs and board meetings.
The site will be revised as users give feedback. A prominent blue button on the bottom right corner serves as a suggestion box.
While job openings are posted on the new site, information for employees has been moved to a separate portal.
"Our current website is a mixture of staff content and public content. It makes it very difficult for either party to really get to what they're after," Mr. Gutowski said.
The site may later include charter schools once the district can also provide comparative data on them, Mr. Gutowski said.
First Published March 22, 2013 12:00 am
