District 181 Earns “Best School Website” Award

The Community Consolidated School District 181 website at www.d181.org has earned the Best School Website Award from the Web Marketing Association during its 2014 Internet Advertising Competition. The site was judged on its creativity, innovation, impact, design, copywriting, use of the Internet, and memorability.

The District 181 site was redeployed in December with a new look, more intuitive navigation, updated content, and several improved features, explains District 181 Director of Communications Bridget McGuiggan. “Our website is an outstanding resource for news, events, and information about all aspects of the District.” Other highlights of the site changes include a fully updated boundary map, a new repository for District publications and forms, and a revised Community Backpack for posting local organizations’ flyers.

The website improvements were led by McGuiggan, webmaster Mary Brija, Assistant to the Director of Communications and Graphic Designer Audrey Galvin, Director of Technology Eric Danley, and the Finalsite team of Scott Opirhory, Derreck Fuschino, and Jen Birstler.

Fuschino believes the site’s simple navigation and unique photo-packed homepage helped to secure the award. “It’s easy to see why CCSD 181 was chosen for this award,” he notes. “As one of our first districts with a responsive design site, District 181 also took into account the importance of an excellent mobile experience for its users. Their community can now easily find information on top hit pages just as easily from their tablet or smartphone as they can on their desktop.”

McGuiggan shares the District’s thanks to the community for their support during the transition to the new site this winter. “By using data and by always welcoming website feedback and the ideas of staff, families, and residents, we were able to collaboratively create a refreshed site that makes the right information easy to find and puts the focus where it belongs – on our students.”