Eastchester Union Free School District www.eastchester.k12.ny.us.

Eastchester Union Free School District www.eastchester.k12.ny.us. THE EASTCHESTER UNION FREE School District, located in New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of ,serves more than 3,000 students in five schools. According to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. thedistrict's history, "the term 'union free' refersnot to the workers' unions we know today, but instead means anindependent school district, sharing no services or connections with anyother district." Design This site's design is simple and barebones, with a scarcity ofphotos or graphics and an emphasis on textual information. The home pageoffers sections for news, upcoming events, and links to individualschool sites. The school sites are presented in various designs. Thedistrict logo (at the top left on the main district site pages) does notoffer a direct link back to the main home page; however, there is aprominent "Home" link underneath the logo. Navigation There is a consistent top navigation bar A set of buttons or graphic images typically in a row or column used as a central point that link you to major topic sections on a Web site. If the navigation bar is a single graphic image with multiple selections, it is known as an imagemap. See imagemap. with links for"Home," "Contact," "Email Sign-up" and"Sitemap." The left nav bar See navigation bar. has 14 choices, including"Administration," "Calendar of Events,""Directory," "Policies," "Procedures,""Programs," "Services" and"Superintendent." The bottom nav bar, with links to"Employment," "Registration" and"Transportation," for some reason appears only on the homepage. The search box, powered by Google, is located at the very bottom ofthe left nav bar--a somewhat odd and out-of-the-way location; it wouldserve site visitors better if placed in the upper right corner, adjacentto the helpful site map link. The search results returned are relevantand appropriate. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Usability There is an adequate amount of information for the various siteaudiences. Because the text-heavy offerings are well-organized and thereis not an overwhelming amount of content provided, the site offers astraightforward, albeit basic, online experience. The site is not optimized for use by disabled users. School-to-Home Interaction There is no formal section for parents or students provided on thesite; however, applicable and pertinent content is peppered throughoutthe site. This includes important and timely student health-relatedannouncements, directories of various district departments, a detailedlisting of policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental , a monthly calendar of events, and anewsletter, School Talk, in Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) The de facto standard for document publishing from Adobe. On the Web, there are countless brochures, data sheets, white papers and technical manuals in the PDF format. format. The "Contact" link simply provides an e-mail address;however, the "Administration" section lists the maindistrict's street address and phone and fax numbers. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Use of Online Technology An e-mail and text-to-cell-phone notification system A modern notification system is a combination of software and hardware that provides a means of delivering a message to a set of recipients. For example, notification systems can send an e-mail when a new topic has been added to Wikipedia. is available. Cable TV coverage of school events and board of education meetingsis offered. The "Home Access Center" offers parents online access to"student schedules, report cards, attendance records, and so on.Discussion forums are hosted on the Eastchester High School Web site. Inthe "Employment" section, there is online access to districtjob openings and applications. Most of the individual schools havenewsletters in Adobe PDF format (although some of them had older issuedates). Up-to-Date Information Most of the content provided on this site is timely. Some of the"Happenings" links are from more than a year ago but offerinformation that remains applicable. The calendar of events is keptcurrent. Laura R. Bona is a contributing writer for DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION.To nominate your district for a site review, contact Editor in ChiefJudy Hartnett at jhartnett@ districtadministration.com.