“A teacher said to me, “every time I open that website it says hello 1999, and it’s time for us to move forward,” said Eric Tusch, the Director of Instructional Technology, describing a conversation he had with a teacher last year. And Hackley did move forward. For this new school year, the Hackley website underwent a major overhaul and facelift.

Last year, the technology department started hearing multiple concerns and complaints about the way the website was running. Hackley decided to take action and start redesigning a new website by convening a technology advisory committee. The committee was tasked to investigate alternatives and evaluate the current website. “Last fall we brought this fully to the faculty and administration. They needed some time to discuss, then we decided about mid-year last year, yes, we agree, it’s time to move, so let’s move. And that’s when we launched our professional development program,” said Mr. Tusch.

The new, cutting-edge website has various added features, including messaging, day to day schedules, and responsive design. The messaging system, which is easy and simple to use, allows better communication between faculty and students. Having the day-to-day schedule up on the website will help students know what they have on the agenda for the day. Responsive design means that the website will format itself to whatever device someone is using to look at it.

Mr. Tusch summed up the changes, and explained, “The format is hugely different. It’s much more user-friendly, much more intuitive. To put it simply, it’s far fewer clicks to get anything done.”

A defining characteristic of the new Hackley website is that it is separated into a private side and a public side. Suzy Akin, the Director of Communications, said, “The front end of the website is for people who are visiting Hackley for the first time, who are trying to learn about Hackley.” The side for the current Hackley community is called MyHackley. MyHackley allows both faculty and students to know what’s going on at Hackley School, both in their individual schedule and in the community as a whole. “We’ve essentially separated the day to day Hackley life from everybody else who visits,” said Ms. Akin.

There were a couple of students’ opinions on the school website. Freshman Francesca Doctors, commented that the new website, “seems as if it’s the iOS7 upgrade for Hackley’s website.” Sophomore Jack Hjerpe is less enthusiastic. “Even though I do enjoy the efficiency of the website, I consider it to be a lot more visually confusing and unappealing,” he said.