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Welcome to our new website!

Go to Video Gallery Added Dec 29, 2023 •

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Happy New Year! And welcome to the new Durango School District 9-R website I'm Karla Sluis, and I'm the Public Information Officer for the school district and the head of the Communications Department.

I'm here to give you a quick tour and share the four goals that we pursued for this website redesign. #1: We want to make sure it's marketing. #2: Better navigation #3: Storytelling, and #4: Encyclopedia content I will show you the new website. Ta da! This is our new home page And so one of the first things you'll notice is these white circles in the background mimic the shape of this cairn (rock stack), which is the symbol that we use for our Portrait of a Graduate. This repeats on all of our school pages.

Our goal with this design was to be modern, tech-friendly, and provide a smooth user experience. One thing that you'll notice that all of our homepages function as a "welcome mat" for visitors – particularly those who may not live in this region. Here is a what we call a "Brag Bar." This points out all of the amazing accomplishments that we are proud of in our district. If you're a new visitor to our homepage and to our community You'll want to get oriented right away. So this About Us section is really supportive, and also there is this map. We have a news block so you can stay up to date. A Mission Statement, some feedback from our family members, parents and students, and Superintendent's Message, Universal Calendar, and this is a nice piece here; it points to our job board if people are interested in learning about the jobs that we have available in the district.

Our second goal for the redesign is navigation. You'll notice under each of these sections we have a large what we call a "mega-menu," or a drop-down menu and the goal of these is so that we can get to where you want to go within three clicks. You'll also notice the search bar up at the top here. We've improved our search function by adding some content the background so that you can find what you need more quickly. Let's go to the Riverview page. All right, you'll notice on the school homepages that some of the menu items at the top have been simplified. We've taken out the 9-R Connection and what you can do now if you want to get back to the District website is click here. It's always on the right-hand side. And all of the content on the school pages is still there, so don't worry about that. When you come back to the main site you can click on the staff 9-R Connection, or you can bookmark connect.durangoschools.org.

Another thing that is important for navigation is to know that we can select the language up here as well. There are many many languages to choose from, which is wonderful. And that aligns with our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging program, of course.

You'll notice also that our Quick Links have been moved to the bottom of each page. I'm scrolling fast here... Down here you'll find important information on each of our homepages. We will be adding a Contact Us link here at the bottom.

Let's go to the Park site. We'll go up here to Our Schools, and then over here to Park Elementary.

Our third goal for the redesign is storytelling. You'll notice that there is a video here on on each of our school homepages so that people can learn more about the school, get a quick tour, and understand the wonderful qualities of each of our facilities. You'll also notice that we have captions on all of our videos. We want to make sure that our site is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act so that people who have visual, auditory, or learning challenges can access all of this information easily.

Diversity in our photos and videos showcases that we value inclusive education and honor all of our school families. Every good story includes a hero. We make sure in each of our blocks to include faces of our staff, students, and families. Be sure to regularly check the news block on each of the school pages as well. as the homepage. You'll find a lot of great, inspiring content and what we call "news you can use" for our families.

We know that there is a lot of content on our website. It can be a little bit overwhelming. We plan to make regular updates and improvements. If you notice that something isn't working, or you have a suggestion on how to improve your website experience, please contact us. I'll show you how to do that. Let's go back to the district website. On the district website you'll want to go to the About Us page, and down here to Contact Us. When you click on the Contact Us, you will find a form that you can write in anything that you think needs to be changed on our website. We really want your feedback, so please use that contact form.

OK, now it's now your turn it's time to cruise around the website yourself, and see how we are providing "MORE in 2024." More marketing, more storytelling, better navigation, and more encyclopedia content. Thank you!

Video Gallery

Welcome to our new website!

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