State College, Pennsylvania, July 27, 2009 — San Diego Unified School District has selected the Schoolwires Centricity platform to further engage its large district community in support of student achievement, it was announced today by Schoolwires, one of the nation’s leading providers of strategic website and community management solutions for building stronger school communities, more effective schools and greater student success.
The district, which is the eighth largest urban district in the United States, will implement the Centricity strategic website and community management platform and its integrated Synergy digital file sharing and Assist service request management solutions in support of its 225 schools, 135,000 students, 23,724 employees and extended community.
“Our mission is to improve student achievement and to ensure that all students graduate with the skills they need to be successful,” said Darryl LeGace, Chief Information Technology Officer, San Diego Unified School District. “Centricity will provide us with a district-wide platform that will enable improved two-way communications with our school communities, which in turn will engage our constituents further in support of our mission. It will enhance communications with the general public, our staff, our parents and our students; and it is a cost-effective solution to accomplish this goal.”
Centricityis the first and only strategic solution for connecting K-12 communities — an all-in-one, user-centric solution that puts all district and school constituents on the same page. Unlike any other solution, Centricity is designed to enable collaboration, work hand-in-hand with digital file sharing, improve communications, enhance operational efficiency, and encourage broad adoption and participation by administrators, teachers, families and students. It is a hosted, on-demand solution designed to offer very high levels of security, performance and reliability.
The solution enables all authorized end users to easily design and populate online information, including teacher websites. Teachers and staff at the district will be able to regularly add and update content, including text, RSS feeds and images. The capability for decentralized web content management enables users to keep the content fresh and updated. At the same time, it gives more sophisticated users access to powerful capabilities like HTML source editing, JavaScript and Flash support, custom .asp programming integration, and continued use of familiar tools like Dreamweaver and Frontpage.
“The classroom-level tools will benefit our students and our parents by providing better avenues for communication about school and classroom activities and educational matters. At the same time, Centricity will provide a consistent look and theme that supports the district brand,” said Bernie Rhinerson, Chief District Relations Officer, San Diego Unified School District. “We interviewed several vendors and concluded that the Schoolwires solution offers the most value and the broad range of web applications that we need to improve our communications and our image with our internal and external stakeholders.”
“A district the size of San Diego Unified School District faces tremendous communication challenges,” said Edward S. Marflak, founder and CEO of Schoolwires. “Centricity will enable the district to provide consistent and easily accessible information and resources to its large community, and at very high levels of security, performance and reliability.”
The San Diego Unified School District serves more than 135,000 students from pre-school through grade 12, and encompasses more than 200 square miles. It is the second largest district in California, and eighth largest urban district in the United States. The student population is extremely diverse, representing more than 15 ethnic groups and over 60 languages and dialects.
Since its founding on July 1, 1854, the district has grown from a small, rented school building with one teacher to its current state—more than 225 educational facilities with 14,500 full-time equivalent staff positions and more than 23,724 employees. The district’s educational facilities include 119 elementary schools, 24 middle schools, 30 high schools, 37 charter schools, and 15 atypical schools.
About Schoolwires, Inc.
Schoolwires Inc. (www.schoolwires.com) is headquartered in Pennsylvania, USA.
Schoolwires provides strategic online communication, community-management and productivity solutions to the K-12 education market. The company’s core product is CentricityTM, which brings together robust and flexible website management, community management and web 2.0/social network capabilities in a single, user-centric solution. Schoolwires also delivers Schoolwires Synergy™, a digital file sharing solution, Schoolwires Assist™, a service request solution, and Schoolwires Share, an exclusive online client community and support center.
Schoolwires is recognized in the Inc. 500 List as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the nation. The company’s on-demand solutions are deployed at nearly 5,000 schools serving nearly five million students, parents, teachers and administrators throughout North America.
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