TOWSON, MD — Baltimore County Public Schools has taken a bright and bold approach to sharing information with its stakeholders with the newly-launched redesign and reorganization of its website, www.bcps.org.
“Making relevant and useful information more accessible to students, families, communities and partners is essential to maintaining two-way communication and facilitating engagement,” said BCPS Superintendent Dallas Dance. “Our technology and communications teams worked with staff from throughout the school system as well as board members, staff, parents and students to revamp our website and make it more user-friendly, flexible and content-rich.”
The website features:
- A multimedia tour (found in the back-to-school focus area box on the home page) to introduce visitor to website enhancements.
- Direct links on the home page to assist families who speak Chinese, Spanish and Korean. (Another link also connects families who speak other languages to information about English for Speakers of Other Languages services as well as translated documents.)
- Home page focus area boxes with links to information about back-to-school, academic initiatives, such as Common Core and Instructional Digital Conversion, and school safety news. The focus of the boxes will change periodically to reflect new initiatives or timely topics.
- A spotlighted video. Now playing is “BCPS Year in Review 2012-2013.”
- A “What’s Happening” section of the home page that spotlights special initiatives and programs within the school system, such as updates on construction projects or recently released reports of special interest.
- A larger, more dynamic “big picture” feature that incorporates video, photography and text to highlight recent news and happenings across BCPS.