Your Web Site Must Offer More than Fluff.

It is one of the most talked about technologies since television. It has revolutionized global communications. It is inexpensive, easily accessible and a "must have" tool. It's the Internet.

The explosion of the Internet's World Wide Web forever has changed how educators gather and dispense information. Students of the 21st century more likely will conduct their homework reading assignments peering into a monitor rather than a printed text. Imagine the convenience of carrying to your school board meetings a diskette of data weighing only ounces versus lugging cumbersome files and policy manuals.

Increasingly, non-educators are using the Internet as educational and informational tools. One recent survey indicated 69 percent of the American public had access to the Internet at home, 47 percent use it at work, and 21 percent use it at school. About a fourth accessed the Internet through an academic server.

Proactive Positioning

School districts must decide whether they want to lead the way with electronic exchange of information or follow the pack. Our district chose the path of leadership. In 1993, Birdville became the third school district in Texas to create a web site. At that time only about 1,000 sites existed on the web, compared to the more than one million sites today. Two years ago, our district was the first in the state to place its board policy manual online and provide the public with tools to search it and other relevant information.

The web site provides internal benefits, as well. It saves countless hours and significant expenses when we can post detailed, current information on line instead of constantly updating hard-copy manuals. Our online policy manual, created by the district's webmaster/management information systems manager blazed the trail for the Texas Association of School Boards' policy service that now is available electronically. Anyone can browse our district's policies on dress codes, attendance, conflict resolution, teacher contracts and, of course, use of the Internet.

Birdville set out to create a web site for more than superficial publicity that people might look at once and never return. We wanted our site to be one that stakeholders bookmark and continue to reference.

Various Functions

A web site can serve many functions for a school district, among them:

* allow the outside world to review your district's programs, policies and achievements;

* exchange information among educators and district residents;

* link home pages of individual campuses, special programs and even students with the district web site;

* keep the community informed of upcoming events;

* serve as a relocation guide for real estate agents, developers and potential home buyers;

* unify a community by providing pointers to other local sites produced by cities, libraries and chambers of commerce; and

* provide educational links throughout the state, nation and world.

When a school district decides to develop a web site, it should consider including information that has practical use for district residents and district staff. The menu should include an area map and district boundaries; history of the district and general information; news releases; school board agendas and a summary of actions at recent meetings; employee, student and district handbooks; job openings; e-mail links to key administrators and trustees; and PTA activities.

A good web site can be created alone, but a great one usually cannot. If the responsibility is assigned to one individual, whether it is the district webmaster or the public relations director, it most likely will lack the group dynamics and accountability that make it successful. The ownership of a web site should be a shared duty to jointly determine appropriate content and format. Plus, group brainstorming always improves the result.

A successful web site needs the creativity of a team to create and maintain a site that will be updated frequently and expanded as opportunities arise. In Birdville's case, webmaster Roger Courtney and I work as partners and serve as the primary contact persons for our schools. He is the technical expert a d web site creator who tracks the late tools and makes page enhancements o keep our site interesting. My job is to gather and disseminate new information about various facets of the district. This results in a site that is updated nearly every day.

Our 30 campus principals or their designees are ultimately responsible for updating their home pages. W encourage their creativity and ask each campus to create a format that best meets their school's needs. The result i a family of home pages on our web site and menu of information and options.

Wide Usage

Getting a school district we site started can be as easy as 1-2-3:

* gain access to a service (many states provide discounted Internet access);

* download free web server software from the Internet or purch se an inexpensive, over-the-counter version; and

* pull it together on a spar . computer.

A web site will not revolutionize how a district communicates wit its internal and external stakeholders. or Birdville, it has become an additional tool for informing our community and others about our goals, accomplishments, upcoming activities at the district and school levels.

You can access our web site at http://www. birdville .k12. tx. us.

Robin McClure is communications officer of the Birdville Independent School District, 6125 East Belknap, Haltom City, Texas 76117. E-mail: [e-mail].k1 .tx.us

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THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR

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* How a superintendent successfully merged three districts

* Focus articles on identifying the best principal candidates and strategies for keeping top teachers in classrooms