Website revamp work in progress

BENTONVILLE — The School District is revamping its website, though the process is taking longer than originally expected.

Leslee Wright, director of communications, and Thomas Rice, director of technology, provided an update on the project during Tuesday’s School Board meeting.

Wright said administrators wanted the website, BentonvilleK12.org, to reflect the district’s commitment to excellence.

“When you think about it, sometimes your website is the introduction people get to your organization,” Wright said. “So we wanted a website that reflected this is a place where excellence lives.”

Wright named some of the challenges the website had presented before a new design went live this summer. It was difficult to navigate, certain items were hard to find, and it wasn’t optimized for a mobile platform, she said.

“We really wanted something that was onestop shopping,” Wright said. “We wanted it all to lead to a seamless experience for our parents, our

students and our staff.”

Rice’s Technology Department began working with Blackboard, a company building websites for school districts. Blackboard was unable to meet an Aug. 2 deadline because the company was “overextended.” The project now is expected to be finished in October, Wright said.

In the meantime, Rice was able to find a website template that’s close to the final product, she said.

“Many of the features that you probably have started to like on the site you’re seeing now will still be in place” when the project is finished, Wright said.

Rice gave board members a quick tour of the current website. Each school’s website can be accessed easily from a drop-down menu at the top of the home page. Each school’s site has a look that’s similar to the district’s site, but their individuality will start to show as content managers are assigned for each one, he said. A designated content manager in each building will be trained on how to manage their school’s site.

Travis Riggs, board president, said he’s been pushing the district for at least 10 years to improve its website.

“I think we’re knocking on the door of a great one,” Riggs said. “I’m already able to find things I wasn’t able to find before.”

Transferring content from the old website to the new one has been a massive task, Wright said.

“There are still some pages that are blank. We’re cognizant of that and we’re on it,” she said.

Officials wanted to make sure certain things, such as the state-required information page, were in line with expectations.

In other district news, an offer of $1 million to buy the district’s warehouse at 1003 S. Main St. was rescinded, but another offer — also for $1 million — is expected today from a different party, said Janet Schwanhausser, finance director. The property was appraised at $825,000. Schwanhausser said she wasn’t aware of the identities of either party making the offers.

The district is looking to sell the building as it prepares to buy the Ambassadors for Christ Academy building in north Bentonville and convert that into a warehouse. The move would expand the amount of warehouse space the district has from 12,000 square feet to 52,000 square feet. Expanding warehouse space has been high on the district’s to-do list for the past 10 years, Schwanhausser said.

The Ambassadors for Christ building sellers have accepted an offer of $2.8 million from the district, pending board approval. Renovating the building to turn it into a warehouse will cost about $1 million. The board is expected to vote on the matter at its meeting Monday.

Ambassadors for Christ Academy operated for 21 years before closing at the end of last school year.