August 4th, 2009New District Website Launched

Dear Phoenix #1 Team,

It is with great pride that we launched our new logo last week, but the pride doesn’t stop there. Today, our new District website is launched! This new website takes us one step closer to providing our parents and constituents with a site that provides the most up-to-date real time communication and sets the stage for developing multiple ways to communicate with them. Over the next few months we will be meeting with parents and staff members to identify the most effective means for real-time communication.

In the meantime, please take a few minutes to browse our new site. It is clean, professional and very well organized. Our goal is to continue to review the new site carefully over the next few days because when launching a new site there are always a few kinks and missing information. If you see any errors or have feedback, please don’t hesitate to send them to MIS Support. Please write “website feedback” in the subject line.

Please also note that we have carefully separated employee information from the website. You can enter the employee Intranet site by clicking on the button in the top right corner labeled “Employee Site.” This makes it easier for you to find employee information and easier for our parents and constituents to find the information they need because it is not so bogged down with too much information. Websites and employee Intranets are commonly separated in organizations and businesses. At some point, our employee Intranet may also be password protected.

In addition to our new site, we will be slowly transitioning to a new web address – www.phxschools.org, and the address will be used in our emails addresses, too. Wow – can you imagine how much easier it will be to share your email address with someone? While we are transitioning for the next year or so, both www.phxelem.k12.az.us and www.phxschools.org will work. And, they will both work for your email address, too, once the necessary steps are completed with the technology. We will be sure to let you know when you can start sharing the new address for your email address. For now, please continue to use phxelem.k12.az.us for your emails.

Thanks to Duke Photography and Photographer Steve Ferguson, all the photos on the site are professional and are of our own students and staff. They donated the photography. And, thanks to Troy Harris, our very own technology guru and his team for a job well done. Troy took on this major task voluntarily and did an incredible job. Thanks also to Erica Brown in HR for her dedication to the project.

We will also be updating our school websites with a new look throughout the school year. Before we get started; however, we will bring parents and staff members together to provide ideas and feedback on the most important features of the sites. Stay tuned for more great work to solidify our District branding. And, please remember, the logo and website are great, but our real branding takes shape every day in every communication we have with our parents, students and all of our constituents. It is your great work that truly defines our brand at Phoenix #1!

Make it a great year!

Sincerely,
Ms. Myriam Roa
Superintendent, Phoenix Elementary District #1