Recap of the inaugural 2010 School-e Awards contest for the best school district website.

1. 2010 SchoolE Awards School Awards

2. A Note from the Coordinator… A big “THANKS!” to all those involved in this inaugural year for the SCHOOLeAwards! All of your comments, Tweets, e-mails, feedback and suggestions have been pivotal in this year’s success, and I am so thankful for all of your input. All I can say is, “Get ready for next year!,” because it is sure to knock the socks off this year’s contest! But first, let’s look back on this year’s… Katie Brosious @allofek12 AllofE Solutions

3. Nominations

4. Nominations Beginning in January, we started taking nominations from administrators, staff members, teachers, students, and community members to identify districts with Web sites that the community cares deeply about.

5. More than 1,600 nominations were made from districts across the United States.

6. And the 30 school district Web sites that received the most nominations moved on as Semi-Finalists.

7. 30 Semi-Finalists

8. The 2010 Semi-Finalists are: 1.Beaufort County School District 2.Blue Springs School District 3.Brownsville Independent School District 4.Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District 5. Center School District 6.Clear Creek Independent School District 7.Easton Area School District 8.Fayetteville-Manlius Schools 9.Fergus Falls Public Schools 10.Frenship Independent School District 11.Friendswood Independent School District 12.Godfrey-Lee Public Schools 13.Hurst-Euless Bedford Independent School District 14.Keller Independent School District 15.Leavenworth Unified School District 16. New Castle County Vocational Technical School District 17.New Milford Schools 18.Orange Schools 19.Paris Independent School District 20.Penncrest School District 21.Pine Tree Independent School District 22.Pleasanton Independent School District 23.Polk County School District 24.Southwest Independent School District 25.Spearfish School District 26. University Academy Charter School 27.Van Meter Community Schools 28.Wakulla County School District 29.West Fargo Public Schools 30.Zachary Community School District

9. Selection

10. Our Selection Panel After handing over the 30 semifinalists to our industry expert panel, Tom Whitby @tomwhitby Ken Royal @kenroyal Steven Anderson @web20classroom Shelly Terrell @ShellTerrell they assessed the sites based on content, design, and overall quality from a broad set of criteria. And identified the 15 sites that exhibit best practices for district Web sites.

11. The panel evaluated the 30 finalists on 30 different Criteria They used a rubric to help tabulate scores… Design Content + Comprehensiveness + Quality + Social Media + Web 2.0 + Look and Feel + Navigation + Attractiveness + Wow-factor

12. And the 15 highest-scoring district websites moved on as finalists.

13. 15 Finalists

29. Voting

30. And the Voting Began… 26,000 + votes were cast over a two-week period. 20 + lead changes for 1st place And there were during those two weeks.

31. District Pride and Passion Escalated “It’s been a great ride! Thanks to Schoole and all who supported Friendswood ISD. Our website is a source for information 24/7!Thanks for Recognizing us!” -just1vote “We here at West Fargo School District are very grateful and very much appreciated to be nominated and listed in the Top 4! We are a relatively small school district and want to thank everyone who voted for us. Thanks again for supporting West Fargo Public Schools.” -Tom Challey and Rob Kaspari “…The students, teachers and community SHOULD be able to vote the first round to make it to the Top 30…andthen, again, maybe to the Top 5. However thefinal decision should go to the professionals IF the judging is to be about design, content, etc…” -Puzzled

32. District Pride and Passion District Pride and Passion Escalated “Godfrey-Lee has 1,700 students in a 1-square-mile district so it certainly will be tough to come out on top strictly through voting. We’re proud to be in the finals, though.” -David Britten “Glad I teach in Polk County, FL. We communicate effectively to support staff, students, and the community at large via technology to reach all the families we connect and empower.” -Nathan Guteras “I have been with CCISD since Aug. 2008. My first project was to redesign the website. With the help of my team members, we launched an entirely new site in 7 months.As Hurricane Ike rolled through our area, we all worked diligently to reach our website goals. I myself had 4 ft. of water in my house. In the midst of juggling house repairs, insurance demands and my family, I stayed focused and was able to launch this AWESOME new site last February. GO CCISD!!” -CCISD Webmaster

33. Validating the Votes

34. But in the end, only one district could prevail. In this phase, where district pride was the most important factor, school passion played a huge role in deciding the winner.

35. Our Second Runner-Up is… Friendswood ISD In a close Second Place, the 1st Runner up… Clear Creek ISD

36. And the Winner is… HEB ISD

37. Congratulations to all districts!

38. A big thanks from The SCHOOLeAwards Team Zach Aimee David Chelsey Stacy Tracy Abbey Katie for making the first Annual SCHOOLeAwards a huge success! for passing on the word.

39. 2011 SchoolE Awards

40. Stay tuned during the coming weeks as we release more information regarding scoring and feedback about the district websites. And stay tuned for next year’s SCHOOLeAwards that will be bigger and better than ever!

41. The 2010 SCHOOLeAwards are hosted by: