SEEKING COMMUNITY INPUT regarding the school web pages. The school web pages, hosted by IES Cyber Schools, were updated last summer to accommodate the federal Americans wtih Disabilities Act. The compliance requires schools and other government entities accommodate those site visitors with disabilities full access to the data contained on the pages. One main area of concern was lack of a descriptive text of pictures for those with vision impairment. The update by Cyber Schools ensured compliance with the ADA requirements. The update also implemented a Google calendar to replace the Cyber School formatted calendar at the request of webmasters/assistants to use one calendar vs. entering the same data twice to two calendars, then updating two calendars when event times and dates changes. Cyberschool then closed out their old calendar and adopted the Google calendar for those schools using Google. We can't go back. The calendar formatting has been improved, but it still doesn't "print" as good as it used to. Printed calendars have become a relic in the industry of fast changing schedules. Cyber Schools continues to improve the calendar and other functions of the web page. 

There have also been a few comments about the need for a mobile app version for Android and IOS Apple. While such an app would be nice, the cost of developing the app (from Cyber Schools) was expensive. The price has recently dropped to one time $950 fee for app development of our web pages, and then $500 yearly maintenance. In the past, when the cost was estimated much higher, we didn't have the support of students, staff, or community to make the expenditure. We'll consider inputs from the community whether to go forward with this initiative. Tech levy funds would be used to support this, as they are already used to fund the school web pages at $790 yearly.

Please email your comments to Dave Dobbins at webmaster@cascade.k12.mt.us.