BOE Approves Website Redesign Bid — Costs, Plan Not Disclosed
South Huntington School Board officials provide few details regarding approved agenda item from Nov. 30 meeting.
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South Huntington School Board officials remain tightlipped regarding a plan for a district website upgrade.
At a Nov. 30 meeting, the district unanimously approved an undiclosed bid offer for a website redesign — without disclosing specifics of the plan.
With nearly no details provided on the agenda or at the meeting, Patch verbally requested from school district spokesman Steve Bartholomew a basic summary of the approved agenda item to include proposed cost, new features and expected time of website launch.
Bartholomew said Dec. 2 in an e-mail to Patch a request to the "Tech people" was made and he is waiting to hear back if "they are ready to publicize."
Another e-mail was sent to Bartholomew Dec. 7 as a follow-up to his reponse.
"I've been told that we are in such early development stages right now that info will be released as it becomes available," said Bartholomew in an e-mail Dec. 7.
Members of the school board were then contacted by Patch and asked for any information that could clarify their approved agenda item.
South Huntington School Superintendent Thomas Shea e-mailed Patch Dec. 9 — but again, few specifics were provided.
"At this point, we have only approved a bid for the redesign of the district website," said Shea. "The proposed upgrades have not yet been determined, the scope of the work has not been discussed, and the coming changes are not yet specific."
With school budget dollars at a premium statewide and expected cuts on the way later this year, the school board apparently approved the undisclosed bid amount for the website upgrade without discussing much of details or specific requirements.
"We have awarded a bid for website redesign and will be meeting in the next few months with the contractor to determine the extent to which we can upgrade and format our award winning website within the established bid costs," said Shea, Dec. 9.
While not providing costs, Shea said the winning bidder for the website job was the public relations company Syntax. He said he would provide more details from the minutes of the meeting, if needed.
After further review by Patch, Syntax, based in Bohemia, has designed websites for Copiague, Valley Stream, Locust Valley and Three Village school districts in New York.
With a school board meeting set for Dec. 14 at Countywood Primary Center, questions still remain regarding the specifics of the approved item.
UPDATE: See comments below for recent BOE e-mail
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South Huntington School District Office
60 Weston St, Huntington Station, NY -
South Huntington School Board Meeting
December 14, 2011 at 7:30 pm499 Old Country Rd, Huntington Station, NY (Countrywood Primary Center)
Rich Jacques
2:26 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Update: On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 1:44 PM, Bartholomew emailed Patch to say:
"2 bids were accepted for review: Edline asked for $90,100. for a 5 year period and Syntax asked for $28,500 for the same 5 year period. Syntax was awarded a 5 year contract ($5,000 per year) to design and launch our new district website, and provide annual service to fully support the district website. The district currently spends $4,000 annually for the current company to provide same website services."
Andrea
2:42 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Wow - that is ridiculously cheap.
Jim R.
3:05 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Finally! The SHUFSD website is an absolute joke (http://shufsd.org/). I'm SHOCKED it has not been hacked and destroyed over the years. It's direct reflection of how poor of a Tech Administrator Sharon Fellner really was. I am embarrassed to be paying taxes to the school district and have that garbage as the district website. For $5k, what is the district going to get? For $4k, they get 1997 Web technology... maybe for $1k more, we can start using MIDI clips and cursors with comet trails. Just awful!!!
Andrea
3:08 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Oh wow - I've never really visited it before. That IS awful. Who was the last company to build/ maintain? A computer science class at Whitman could've probably made a better one as a class project! People can build websites for FREE that look better than that! Wow... just wow! I really hope this $5,000 a year is enough to get something better - that's just embarassing.
Jim R.
3:38 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
@Andrea .. Yes! What the district should have done is start a club in high school, where the students learn about site design and then actually build the SD's site. When I was in HS, I would have salivated at the possibility. Problem is, most administrators are afraid to think differently.
Andrea
3:42 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Absolutely!!! The "joke" is always that these kids are so tech advanced - they could teach Apple how to design apps - I bet a club could design a website that would completely exceed expectations of the administration. It's unfortunate because it would be a great opportunity all around - I mean, it isn't much different than the club that puts out the school newspaper, right? And its probably even more "appropriate" for the 21st century than newspaper or yearbook clubs...
Judy
9:29 am on Thursday, December 15, 2011
we had a computer club, it was cancelled. We have plenty of talented, knowledgeable kids in the high school who would be able to put together an updated, well thought out website. We have kids in the high school now who do this on the side to make money.
Why aren't we allowing them to submit designs and let them have a say in how the website looks?
Judy
9:31 am on Thursday, December 15, 2011
it shows you have short sighted our BOE has become. They are there for the kids, yet they act as if it's a private business. Our kids have great ideas. They should be included in this process. THEY have been asking for an updated website for YEARS.
Judy
9:33 am on Thursday, December 15, 2011
we do have AP computer science, even though we've eliminated the other computer science courses when we eliminated the 9th period.
Jim R.
10:46 am on Thursday, December 15, 2011
@Judy - great to hear that they still have AP comp sci!!!
Jason Molinet
3:50 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
This $5,000 yearly average seems below market. Good for the district.
matt harris
5:42 pm on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
As a former, retired IT tech for South Huntington, I can assure you that SHSD has the server and fiber throughput capacity to have their website completely in house, as it already does for all e-mail and Infinite Campus. The current website was designed in 1996. While it was an "award winning" website then, not much has changed from what I can tell......
Brian
12:29 pm on Thursday, December 15, 2011
Much has changed Matt...but little of it for the positive.
Judy
10:50 am on Thursday, December 15, 2011
Jim, AP won't mean anything next year since Whitman no longer offers the pre-requisites. The irony is that Computer science is where there are jobs!
Jim R.
1:39 pm on Thursday, December 15, 2011
@Judy - Yep, I know that very well!
Mary Z
2:12 pm on Thursday, December 15, 2011
I have activily been using this website for at least 10 years and can honestly say I have never had any major problems with it. I am always able to get the information I need no matter which school or office I am looking at. Please enlighten me with the specifics of the problems you are all talking about.
If it is thought that it does need a overhaul then yes I believe it should be done in house. The students of the district are more then capable of running this. Once again, lets stop the wasteful spending of taxpayers money!