Tell Me About IT

WGHS Junior Jordyn Barrett pulls out her phone to check her grades on school tool. She goes to the WGCSD.org only for the website to freeze up. Unable to scroll or press any of the menu buttons she is forced to leave the webpage and try to reload it later. This is an all too familiar problem for WG students.
Jordyn claims the most common time for issues is when she attempts to access the page from home.
“If you’re at home and don’t have a laptop and you try to get to it on your phone it does not work at all” Barrett stated when asked about the issues she has with the webpage.
Accessing the website from home is an issue shared by other students as well. Senior Kiersten Stiles is in Accounting class and when she tries to use the school webpage to get to her homework it tends to not load or completely crash. Students who have these issues are often unsure who to go to in order to get these issues fixed.
Melanie Chandler is the Director of Technology here at WGHS. She plans and prioritizes anything related to IT within the district. She’s part of a small staff that focuses on servicing all the technology people see in the district. She is also part of a larger team that works at BOCES on IT related tasks behind the scenes.
“We all work together as a whole to help support the IT operations here” said Chandler as she explains what kind of work the team does.
Chandler carried on to say that there are many roadblocks or challenges that the IT team has to face. A big challenge they face is updating the content on the page. According to Chandler content updates constantly need to happen and require the cooperation of everyone, from the people taking pictures, the athletic coaches and directors, or even the IT team itself.
Another challenge they face is trying to ensure that the webpages they create are compatible on devices.
“I’d say that challenges for web developers nowadays is that you have so many different types of devices” stated Chandler as she explained the challenges web designers face in today’s world with the constant introduction of new devices for people to use.
Melanie ended with saying that if students ever have issues involving the school technology or accessing the school webpage they are more than welcome to stop by her office. Melanie Chandler is usually in room 815 of the student services office. Students can also email her secretary Nancy Bradascio. Their emails are found on the high school webpage.
Students like Jordyn Barrett and Kiersten Stiles can always contact Melanie Chandler or any other members of the IT team in order to address the issues they are having. Students can also contact the team if they have any ideas on new features to the school page. The webpage may have its issues but it is relieving to know that behind it is a team of hardworking people who devote their time to focus on making student’s lives easier by having less technology related issues.