Updated CRCS Website Inbound

By Joshua Walther

COBLESKILL - On Monday evening, the CRCS Board of Education heard a presentation from Communications Specialist Samantha Keaney on their brand-new website, which will be easier to integrate with their ParentSquare app.

The district rolled out ParentSquare last year, allowing Superintendent Matthew Sickles and the principals of each school to communicate delays, emergencies, and other time-sensitive information to parents effectively over email, text, and phone.

Now that they’ve had a test year, Ms. Keaney plans to update their six-year-old website to be hosted on Smart Sites, another product under the umbrella of ParentSquare.

Since both products are from the same company, ParentSquare posts will be able to be shared directly on the new website, CRCS’s staff directory will be up to date and reflect changes accordingly, and smart alerts for snow days or other school outings can function as a pop-up online.

Further, if the district needs help with maintenance of the site, Ms. Keaney stated that ParentSquare’s customer service is a huge plus, and Smart Sites will offer other incentives like free design changes and AI generative alt text on photos to serve as captions.

Ms. Keaney pledges that the website will be a big step up from the viewer’s perspective, and the individual links to a school’s specific page will be front and center, allowing for easier navigation.

The home page will also look very different, and there will be two sections for District Updates and Stories and Highlights, which will respectively list announcements for families and feature students’ accomplishments.

Clubs and activities will now have their own page, serving as a directory to encourage students to learn more about extracurricular programs and how to sign up for them, with another separate page dedicated to athletics and sports.

And if that wasn’t enough, the website will be easier for staff and faculty, as well. Principals and Superintendent Sickles will be able to pin specific announcements to the school pages, so that they’ll be the first thing a family sees when they go online.

Ms. Keaney explained that she’ll spend the next couple weeks ironing out the finishing touches, and she plans for the website to go live on December 22nd to give everyone time over the holiday break to acquaint themselves with the new tools.