NK Schools Get Revamped Website

If you've been to the North Kingstown School Department's website lately, you've probably noticed something different. The school's information technology department rolled out the new site earlier this week to provide students, parents  and teachers with a more user-friendly system.

"The old website, we felt, was a little cluttered," said North Kingstown Superintendent Phil Thornton. "We wanted to make a sharper, more user-friendly website."

The newer version will feature a new color scheme of black and gold, the school colors of the high school. The site will also incorporate video more extensively, showing 30-second clips of activities around the district. Thornton also wants the site to have more up-to-date photos.

"We traditionally have not had a whole lot of pictures on the website," said Thornton. "We want new pictures constantly. This morning I was over taking shots at Stony Lane Elementary of kids getting off buses, so we're going to have a lot of up-to-date shots and a timely look."

Another added feature is a a monthly message from the principal of each school, featured on each school's respective page. Photos, video and events will be updated monthly.

As for the cost, Thornton says the district largely used open source programs on which to operate the site.

"The cost was nominal," said Thornton. "Just our time."

The initial launch date was set for last week, but technical difficulties with the universal calendar and pages that weren't linked to the rest of the site pushed the date back a few days.

Only select pages have seen the update, but the rest are expected to roll out in phases between now and Thanksgiving break.