See the new Rapid City Area Schools Web site at www.rcas.org

It's cleaner, easier to navigate, and yes, those cute kids on the opening page of the newly revamped Rapid City School District Web site are local students - from Valley View Elementary.

"We've had a lot of good comments," said Rick Bates, information technology director for the district. "It's foundational, a huge architectural change for us."

A new Web site for the district has been up about a month and includes several new features, including an open invitation for staff to blog and start Web pages connected to the district.

"Our goal is that everyone becomes a publisher," Bates said. "This will reflect that new energy in education - the way people communicate."

The site is also now accessible for staff when they are at home or logging on from outside of work. The site they log into will be specific to their area of work.

"If you're a math teacher, you see the information that's applicable to you," he said. "We're trying to make content targeted to who you are and we're trying to blur the lines of what you can only see at work and then now at home."

The site allows each department to publish its own information on its own pages. The human resources staff can now publish its own employment opportunities information.

"It's hard to believe, but for all the programming we do, we only have one programmer," Bates said. "It was very important for us to find a way to delegate the ability for people to publish."

Visitors can sign up to get updates on changes to the calendar or job listings.

Stevens High School's webmaster and principal's secretary Kim Crump's favorite part of the new site is the fact that new school calendar items automatically show up on the home page of the school's site.

"Parents can see things right at a glance, and they really like that feature," she said.

All of the daily announcements, activities and scholarships deadlines and information are posted on the site as well, Crump said.

And for parents navigating more than one site if they have kids at different schools, the new district Web site has streamlined them all to operate and look the same.

"They've made it consistent," she said. "You don't have to learn a whole new Web page.

They did a really good job setting these up."

South Park Elementary Principal Rod Haugen agreed.

"What's nice is that, in the past, it's been so cumbersome and difficult to move around," he said.

South Park keeps its site updated with activities and calendars, lunch menus and Haugen's monthly newsletter. People without Internet access at home won't be left in the dark; the school still sends the information home on paper.

There is still work to be done, Bates said. Staff will need to be trained on how to post and publish and as teachers start classes, programming will have to be done to get new sites up and running.

It's definitely a change in attitude for the district, Bates said.

"We've been very hesitant to allow teachers and students to blog," he said. "The Web can be a dangerous place."

Teachers and staff will be given the discretion to post and monitor student posts, he said.

"We're trying not to be very heavy-handed about posts," he said, adding that eventually the district might adopt guidelines.

He said people know how to be professional and that shouldn't change when it comes to the Web.

"For a teacher, is it appropriate to blog about the principal?" he asked. "I'm hoping we can leave that unsaid. It's hard because in some ways it's what they want to communicate and we don't want to stifle that."

He's hoping more people take advantage of it.

"It's really just the next level of communication," he said.

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com.