On April 25, Haven launched the new mobile WSSD app in a process to further streamline communication between the school and community and provide attainable and essential school resources. The app was developed by Communications and Community Relations Liaison Ms. Rachel Riley, who also maintains the WSSD social media accounts and WSSD website.
According to Riley, the opportunity for an app arose in late January, when WSSD’s new websites launched partnered with a new host site, Final Site. The app was also included in their contract.
Originally, the website platform had been under Blackboard K-12 Education before the company was purchased by Final Site. The revisions for the websites and advent of the WSSD app was part of the third pathway of WSSD’s strategic plan for culture, community, and communication.
The app has five main sections: the home page, posts, school board, events, and other resources, including links to WSSD social media. Resources available on the app are Schoology, PowerSchool, PTO & HSA resources, and more. These features are consistent with the website, providing similar tools under different functions.
According to Riley, one purpose for the app is to make certain resources and information that are used more from the website more readily accessible to the community and parents.
“For instance, you may not need to get directly into our Capital Plan information right away. That is not listed on here, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It’s on the website, but it’s not directly on the app because the app should be the more immediate things,” Riley said.
In addition, the app provides another form of communication with families beyond the school messenger, particular on days with inclement weather.
“We can also do push notifications to the app as well and a lot of people have cell phones, so it’s easy to have the pop-up, ‘School is closed for the day’ because not everyone is going to check their email at five in the morning to see if school is closed for the day,” Riley said.
As of May 9, 685 people have downloaded the WSSD app, two weeks after the app’s launch and following the April 28 school board meeting, according to Riley.
Despite this, many students do not have the app and some are even unaware that Haven has one.
“I don’t have it because I never knew that it existed… so I guess that’s really the reason why I don’t have it,” sophomore Ming Cerdan said.
Cerdan receives her information about Haven’s happenings in other ways.
“I just wait until my mom says something to me, but if she doesn’t, then I tend to go on the website to see if anything’s going on. I look at the calendar and everything, and that’s the only thing I go to the website for,” Cerdan said.
Sophomore Henry Hewitt has the app, deciding to download it when he was on the WSSD website and saw a pop-up promoting it. Hewitt notes that there are better resources available that relay information to students than the app.
“I get all my news from either the website, email to Schoology updates, and Schoology updates pretty much tell you everything you need to know about the district. Or even, if you want to go a step further, you can go to the principal’s newsletters. That also has a lot of good stuff,” Hewitt said.
Even so, Riley hopes the new app is another resource in addition to the WSSD social media accounts, the principals’ newsletters, the website, and communication material sent out by the superintendent.
“For goals, I just want to make sure that it’s something that people are enjoying and want to utilize, that it’s a service worth having,” Riley said. “I do think as we’re in a very tech world, I think an app is always going to be necessary, whether people want it or not. It’s there and it’s available and it’s just another way of communication. So the more communication, the better in some cases.”
Riley looks forward to seeing how the WSSD app will grow as time goes on.
“It’s been interesting, and I want to see how it grows and develops, and it’s new skills for me to add to my toolbox of communication skills, so I’m excited to see how I grow and develop along with this app,” Riley said. “It’s a learning curve as well to figure out what’s going to work, what’s not going to work… getting a lot of feedback from people will be really beneficial as we make sure that this is going to be something worthwhile.”
