Getting information about Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School became a lot easier with the recent launch of the district’s new website.

Still found at www.cvscs.org, the site now incorporates features designed to increase the website’s usefulness for students and district residents.

"A lot of school’s websites serve mainly as information dissemination tools," said high school principal and website administrator Charles Strange. "We’re hoping to be able to go a little further than that. It’s a system that allows for a lot of participation in our organization."

Strange said most students and many parents are online these days and that the new website does a better job of serving people than the previous website.

He said it also gives more creative control to the web administrators, defined as anyone who puts content on the site.

Currently there are about a dozen web administrators, Strange said.

The website was built using www.myschoolpages.com and was purchased through ONC BOCES along with several other schools, Strange said.

The new site went live the last week of November and features a better organization of information, a district calendar listing a wide variety of events, a staff directory, a lunch menu and contact information for school board members.

A series of navigation tabs along the top of the site’s main page allows for quick access to information regarding specific areas of the school, like the elementary school, high school and library.

The main page also features a news banner which announces district news of note and provides flashing alerts when school activities are cancelled due to inclement weather.

One of the key new features on the site is designed to connect alumni with the school community. Almuni can now register on the site by clicking on the "Community" tab on the main page and provide contact information, the names of any spouses or children and current residence information.

Sometimes after students graduate they sort of disappear, Strange said, but now they can keep in touch with the school and classmates through the site.

"We love hearing from alumni," he said. Eventually, Strange said they plan to have surveys on the site for alumni, which will ask questions like "Did a college level course at CVSCS prepare you adequately for actual college courses?"

Strange said at some point in the future the website will provide parents and students with the ability to see their grades while a marking period is in progress.

That change might take a while, he said, as teachers are still acclimating themselves to grading software that is used to calculate and keep track of grades.

He said one parent called and asked if teachers could provide their homework assignments on the site as well, something Strange said he would also like to see eventually.

Feedback about the site or about general school issues can be sent through a link on the site’s main page.

"Everyone who looks at the site should check it frequently because there’s always new information," Strange said. "Keep checking it and by all means drop us a line."