MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - The new school year is approaching. That means new students, new lessons and for Haslett Public Schools, a new school district website.

The new district website is more modern looking compared to the old one that the district had for fourteen years. The website also allows for easy navigation for parents, students, and community visitors.

The process to create the new website only took a year. It started off in October with a committee of district teachers, secretaries and parents. The committee looked into what site vendor the district should use for the website. After choosing a vendor, the committee conducted a survey with parents and asking them their opinion on the website.

“We got about 700 responses and one of the most common responses we received is that our existing website was very difficult to navigate there was a lot of information on it, too many links, [and] a lot of the information was outdated," said Jeff Cassin the Director of Technology for Haslett Public Schools. “It was really important to us to have a website that was much more user friendly and contained the information our users were looking for.

The quick link tabs at the middle of screen allows easy access to tabs containing the lunch menu, staff directory, contact form and a link to the parent portal portion of the website.

Not only does the new website give more of an eye appeal, but it also assists with visually impaired visitors. The new site is Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant and the site gives the proper layout needed for a screen reader to read the screen correctly.

Okemos Public Schools also has a new district website, supported by the same vendor, Blackboard.