Back-to-School in Beachwood Is Easy as Point and Click

If you have a child in Beachwood City Schools, you can expect the annual information packet to arrive in the mail in the next couple of days.

But this year, mail personnel will be thanking the district for lightening their loads.

Instead of the 15 to 20 pages of forms, information, lunch menus and calendars parents are used to getting, the packet will be three or four pages long and include a letter from the school principal directing them to the district’s brand new website.

At first glance, the site looks very similar to the website users saw yesterday. But the new features are there: namely, a “back-to-school” section that has the volume of information that has been mailed out to every student in the district each year and a couple dozen teacher Web pages.

Besides cutting printing and mailing costs and the school’s carbon footprint, Communications Director Doug Levin said that the new website platform offers features that would have cost the district thousands of dollars extra under the school’s former Web platform.

Under the new platform, powered by eSchoolView, Beachwood City Schools paid a $3,600 launch fee and $213 per month, which includes tech support plus features like video hosting and teacher webpages. The old system cost $160 per month but added one-time fees of $5,000 to $10,000 for these extras.

“The long-term goal for the website is to create more connectivity between teachers, parents, the schools and community members,” said Levin. He said he will add content to the site that he hopes will better promote the district, by focusing on the student experience instead of only accomplishments.

Teacher Pages

Every teacher in the district has the opportunity to create a page, said Levin, but most of the pages that are posted now are owned by elementary school teachers. To access, go to your school's page (like this one for Hilltop) and look for the "Teacher Websites" link.

See an example of a teacher page here: Alexa Trudell, a 4th-grade language arts teacher, has posted a page that includes information about herself, tips for parents to help their children develop and links to other sites parents might find helpful. 

Back-to-School Center

This page features medical, athletic and booster and PTO forms, calendars, lunch menus, links to pay school fees and lunch fees online and other district information. There are also links to each school's page, where supply lists and other information is available.

The district will still mail packets by request; contact your school for more information.