In late December, students and staff may have been surprised when they clicked on the school’s website to find an error message: “Site doesn’t exist. Tenafly.k12.nj.us.” Little did some of the staff and student body know, but a new school website was being implemented. The district migrated to the new site due to the closing of the previous vendor, Fusion. The new school website became officially available for use on January 1st, 2018.

The website, called Schoolwires, offers a new, modern, and chic look compared to the previous Fusion page. Before the launch of the new site, four staff Tech Mentors—Madame Williams, Mrs. Celli, Mrs. Saudino, and Mr. Whitehead—trained other staff members on how to navigate the new site and set up their class pages. “The layout and look of the website are much better than Fusion. It is much easier for students to navigate and access teacher pages,” said Mrs. Celli, when asked about her opinion on the school website. The new site allows students and teachers to have an easier way of getting in touch and accessing any homework or class files. The new website breaks down each school’s personal page and offers an easy-to-use staff directory. The previous school site had teachers listed in a random order; now the staff directory is organized in an alphabetical format. 

The new website includes more improvements than ever, making it more user-friendly. A brand new option that was added to the website was a translator tool. This feature allows the entire school website to be translated into over 70 different languages. There is also a new section to access popular links on the website. Popular links allow users to quickly access school pages. Among many other changes, there is also a new interactive map at the bottom of every Tenafly school webpage. The map allows visitors to get step-by-step Google Maps directions with just a click of a button. “The website is still a work in progress. There are a few glitches that are being fixed as we learn about them. Overall, I believe the new website will be easier for staff and students to navigate. We encourage students, staff, and parents to reach out to our Tech Department for feedback,” said Assistant Superintendent, Barbara Laudicina.

As much as the website is supposed to help students navigate easier, according to a recent Echo poll, 39% of voters “Strongly Disagreed” and 38% of voters “Disagreed” when asked if the new website was easier to use than the previous one. The website continues to be improved upon each day by the hard-working technical staff in the district, and perhaps opinions will change soon. Be sure to look at all the new improvements by going to www.tenaflyschools.org.