This is the time of year when New Year’s resolutions are made. One of the most frequent ones is resolving to finally get organized. As a school district we have some tools that can help with that one, at least in terms of school life.

Virtually every school district now has a web site, and we’ve had one for many years. It’s gone through a number of both major and minor revisions as we’ve learned how to use it better. Many of our students’ parents and other community members are familiar with it, but I know that many others have either never used it, or have not done so in a long time.

We are sensitive to the fact that not everyone has a computer or Internet access, and we make sure that for every required school procedure, there is a hard-copy form available and a way to process it. But most of our families do have access to the Internet, and our web site has a great deal of useful information on it.

The very fastest way to find out about a delay or closing due to inclement weather is on the web site…it’s always posted in big letters right at the top of the home page. That posting is done within minutes of the decision being made, even before the automated phone calls begin to go out. (I know our kids know this, because web site usage spikes on snowy mornings.)

But there’s much more school calendar information as well. The entire academic calendar is posted, with all the important school dates, like the first and last days, holidays, etc. By the way, on Dec. 17 the school board approved the calendar for the 2010-11 schoolyear, and that is already posted on the web site as well, underneath the 2009-10 calendar.

Another powerful organizing tool is what we call the interactive calendar. It has all the school events, including sports, for every one of our schools. But it allows you to select the schools, and the types of activities, that will show on your own calendar view. For example, if you wanted to see only sports and music activities, and only for the Freshman School and Fairfield Senior High School, you can set your calendar to see just those and not to have wade through all the other things going on. (It’s eye-opening to set the calendar, just for a moment, to select for all schools and all activities, and see just how much is going on all the time.)

The interactive calendar also has a useful “subscriptions and reminders” feature. If you want an email reminder about an event, you can sign up for that. And a subscription will make sure you’re notified about changes in any events, such as a new time, date or location.

Also on the web site: curriculum information, Board of Education policies, downloadable versions of our most commonly used forms, financial information about the district, lunch menus, information on our sports teams, and much more. The web site includes Progress Book, a way for parents to know how their children are doing in class. And the home page is where we post all the most current news about what’s going on in the schools.

Published in the Fairfield Echo, Dec. 31, 2009.