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Greeneville, TN
www2.gcschools.net Greeneville, Tennessee is perhaps best known as the home of our 7th president, Andrew Johnson. Nestled in the northeast corner of Tennessee, it is also home to Tusculum College, the General Morgan Inn, and one of the most forward-thinking and technology-savvy school systems in the country. Beverly Miller is the CTO of Greeneville City Schools and the leader of the team who won the 2008 Dr. Sylvia Charp Award, an honor given by ISTE for the most innovative K-12 district in the United States. The initiatives introduced by the school system run the gamut from establishing a global initiative intended to connect with a "sister school system" in the small country of Belize, to introducing the use of student cell phones in the classroom. One of Bev's goals during this period of time was to find a solution for her web presence: "I began to realize that the quality of our district web site was simply not indicative of the school system's quality. Our customers expected and were beginning to demand more timely information updated on a more regular basis."
We met Bev at the NECC conference during her search for the best solution for her district and school websites. She was determined to get her new web site built and launched within just weeks. With careful planning and thorough training, Bev's efforts paid off. Even her Director of Schools got onboard by posting the first news story with pictures on their first day of training. When asked about her favorite feature, Mrs. Miller elaborated: "The ability to give ownership of various components of the web site to those who are accountable for the information is priceless. Instantly, our web site went from being a static, boring, out of date site to being dynamic and informative! There have been few projects during my fourteen-year tenure at GCS that have had a more far reaching - almost instantaneous impact on school and community involvement and communications improvement. We are striving to use every single component of SIS. However, the blogs, shared calendars and document libraries are being utilized most heavy at this time."
Some examples of their efforts can be seen under the Director of Schools area where Dr. Ailshie posted a blog during his visit to Belize. In addition, teachers and staff are beginning to blog under the Technology area. Greeneville High School recently created a blog to allow alumni soldiers serving our country to stay in touch with the community. This is their unique way of remaining connected with them outside of pre-empted social networking sites which are not often accessible from their respective military operations.Mrs. Miller goes on about her success: "Now, instead of attempting to single-handedly manage our web site, I have built an entire team of system personnel who have been eager to post content based on their own departments/experiences. We now are so much closer to a truly "world-class" web site and I cannot thank SIS enough for their fantastic partnership!"
Greeneville City Schools also rolled out their school sites and their school webmasters and administrators are most pleased with the result. Dr. Linda Stroud, principal at Greeneville High School, commented: "I hear from parents all the time about how the website is a great tool for communicating what is going on at GHS. Most say that they wouldn't know without it!"
Bev sums up her experience. "A year and three months later . . . .I am happy to report we chose the BEST solution in SIS. We truly found an education "partner" in SIS. Their sales team, particularly Mrs. Doris Moody, is simply incredible. Their trainers did a phenomenal job in training our staff and helping us to get a brand new web site up and running within weeks of committing to the company."
Greeneville City Schools' motto is, "Only the best ... and getting better." We at SCHOOLinSITES believe in that same policy. And we are proud to make Greeneville City Schools our Featured Website.
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