Board Of Education (BOE) member Jeof Vita announced at the March 21st BOE meeting that the school board was continuing its improvements to communicate with the community by updating the school district’s web site and adding a live stream during the pubic comment portions of meetings. These implementations follow the official Roselle Park School District Facebook page which was launched on March 18, 2013.
The school district web site, which provides information on all Roselle Park public schools as well as activities and notices, is being updated to accommodate access via smartphones and tablets. The newly responsive web site will be tailored to provide clearer information on screens smaller than those of regular computer or laptops while maintaining uniformity on computer screens. Commonly known as a ‘mobile site’, these web sites are designed to have more easy-to-read buttons instead of the usual menu links which are harder to view without magnification on mobile devices – most which have screen sizes that vary from 10″ to as small as 3.5″. There was no date given for the launch of the new design but Mr. Vita stated it would hopefully be rolled out in the near future.
The next implementation will incorporate a live streaming of public sessions which will have a chat functionality so those residents who are not able to attend a meeting will still be able to provide input and ask questions publicly for the record. Questions or comments that are typed will be read aloud for the BOE to address.
“We recognize that not everybody can be here for any reason,” stated Mr. Vita, “So if you have a question that needs to be answered, at least we will be able to provide that option to get it out there.”
An account was set up and will be going through some testing to make certain it works before it goes live. The live streaming will be available on the school district’s Facebook page as well as on mobile devices and computers.
“One of our goals in the district is to improve communication and foster dialogue,” commented BOE President Chris Miller,”I just want to commend Mr. Vita and Mr. Bruceknstein on the Technology for aggressively attacking these three issues. It’s really moving us forward.”