Students, parents and employees in the Jackson School District who visit the district's website will find it has been redesigned and updated.

The new online presence is an effort to be consistent districtwide and easier to use, said associate superintendent Dr. Beth Emmendorfer. The site is at www.jacksonr2schools.com.

"We just wanted it to be a more effective communication tool," she said.

The district worked with Element 74, a website development company in Cape Girardeau. Emmendorfer said she and other staff have been working with the company since January to brainstorm and develop the new site, which went live July 1.

The district paid $12,735 for design, development and ongoing monthly training for staff, teachers and administrators, she said.

She said the goal was to make it easier to navigate the site and put information in concentrated areas so parents and students would know where to look.

"We wanted to limit it to two clicks," she said.

She said there are fewer navigational bars and the calendars are consistent for all the district buildings.

More teachers are using professional development opportunities to build webpages for their classes, she said.

"I think we will see that more and more as a trend," she said.

At the high school, for example, there are 21 teacher pages. The individual teacher pages include information about projects and assignments.

"I think that for a parent it helps with kind of keeping up with what's going on in the class," she said.

abusch@semissourian.com

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