At the May 19 Birmingham Public Schools Board meeting, a resolution was passed for a new BPS website. It will cost an estimated $78,256.
“I know it’s a tough time in the midst of all these budget cuts to be spending money,” BPS Vice President Susan Hill said. “But I thought that it was an important investment.”
It has been seven years since the BPS website was updated, and the board feels a new one is overdue.
“I’ve been complaining -- as most people in our community have, really -- about the quality of our existing website,” Hill said. “It’s just not good, and it really doesn’t reflect the quality of our school district.”
Board Trustee Robert Lawrence praised the decision, saying that a new website is long overdue.
“We’re about two generations past what our current website is capable of,” Board Trustee Robert Lawrence said. “The demands that teachers and parents and students are putting on the system just can’t be met with the existing framework.”
President of Birmingham Education Association Maureen Martin agreed with Hill and Lawrence.
“Frankly, our current website could be much better,” Martin said. “I’m not against having a new website. I think it’s a lot of money to spend and I hope that part of that [$80,000] will be put into professional development.”
In an e-mail to BPS staff, Executive Director of Technology Services Lisa Martinico explained why a new website is necessary.
“Seven years ago some of the feature-rich tools that many of [BPS staff] are now requesting were not available,” Martinico said. “In our effort to constantly communicate better with our constituents, the time has come to meet these needs with the latest technologies.”
For large projects like this one, the district is required by state law to take public bids.
“We prepared bid specifications,” Martinico said. “And they were issued on April 13. Perspective bidders were notified by invitation and public advertise.”
Seven bidders initially replied to the announcement, all with very different costs.
“Bids ranged in price from $26,000 to $106,000,” Martinico said.
Only three of the original bids were not dismissed after evaluation.
“Four were reviewed,” Martinico said. “And were either incomplete in meeting all our requirements, or way out of the ball park price range, or the company was too small to handle our needs. Three proposals were seriously considered. Interviews were conducted with these three remaining companies.”
School Fusion was the best solution.
“It was the best technical solution by far,” Martinico said. “They’re a key player in the school market. They currently have over 5,000 schools and over 600 school districts as clients.”
They also had every feature the district asked for.
“We had a list of 21 required features and 34 desired features,” Martinico said. “They were the one that best meet our requirements. They included all of our required features and desired features.”
The bid price for School Fusion was in the middle range.
“It was not the cheapest, but not the most expensive;” Lawrence said.
In order for a resolution to pass, a majority of the board members must vote yes.
“We get a resolution,” Hill said. “And in our weekly packet we get all the background information and all the details. When you get to the board meeting, you get a resolution to vote on. You can only vote yes, no, or abstain. In order for the resolution to pass, four [out of seven] board members have to vote yes.”
One board member was not present, but the six in attendance passed the resolution unanimously.
The contract will last three years and include storage space.
“[The cost] consists of the site itself, and three years of unlimited storage,” Hill said. “So, the site won’t be hosted on BPS computers, it will be hosted elsewhere.”
Of the $78,256, $24,600 was for an emergency response system, a system that instantly contacts families when a notable event occurs.
“It kind of works along the same line as the absentee system that says you missed class,” Hill said, “That automated call you get at home. Administration made the case for it, in terms of if, God forbid, there was a true emergency. But it’s also for parent notification, like if we have to close the school on a snow day, for example. It gives us the ability to contact parents immediately.”
Lawrence echoed Hill, emphasizing the system’s accessibility
“It can broadcast emails, phone calls, or text messages,” Lawrence said. “It’s one of those functions that you hope to never have to use, but if there is some dangerous event or emergency at the school, having that capability will allow everyone to be informed of what is going in.”
According to Hill, the resolution could have been passed without the emergency response system.
“We could have approved it without the emergency notification system,” Hill said. “That would have brought the total for the website to $53,456 for the three year maintenance and hosting, plus the package itself. So we could have saved about $25,000 by backing that out.”
Hill stressed that the cost per student for the new website is suprisingly low.
“They said it was about three dollars a head,” Hill said, “A head meaning three dollars per student that you input to the system. If you do the math on it, that $25,000 comes out to one dollar per student per year. So, in my mind, a dollar per student per year -- I felt was justifiable.”
Other important features include spellcheck, video on demand, sync-able calendars, wikis, blogs, podcasts, slideshows, and other web 2.0 tools.
“We can post up the video from board meetings or study sessions that we televised, and people can access it directly.” Lawrence said.
There will also be many advantages for teachers.
“Storage space for teachers and administrators will be unlimited,” Hill said. “Teachers will have the ability to easily create Flash quizzes and will be able to change the layout of their web pages. Their web pages will be quite user friendly.”
Martinico thinks that the new BPS website will be well worth its price tag.
“I don’t think we have to apologize for keeping current in communications,” Martinico said. “Many people are attracted to Birmingham and want to find out about Birmingham Schools via the website. And for each new student that we bring into the school district, that would off-set the cost of the total website. If we brought one student into Birmingham for several years, that would easily off-set the cost of the website.”
