FAIRMONT — Along with new classes and teachers, Fairmont Area Schools will have a new website for the coming school year.

The site, which has the same web address of www.fairmont.k12.mn.us, went live at the beginning of the month.

“Apptegy is our new web hosting provider,” said district technology specialist Erik Walker. “They helped us migrate our content from our previous website to a new website. They’re also helping us turn our website into a mobile app that works for Android and iPhone. Some of the things that can be accessed on the mobile app include sports scores, and different announcements can be sent through push notifications.”

“A big benefit to Apptegy is that it allows teachers and administrators to push news out through a variety of media at the same time,” he noted.

Apptegy replaces the school’s former dialer system. With Apptegy’s “thrillshare,” the school can send out alerts simultaneously via push notifications, text messages, voice calls and social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

There’s a live feed that will update on the website, something Walker said is similar to Twitter but for a school.

“It makes the website a host for more recent information and it does so in a way that really organizes the information that people need to see. Our former web provider was not able to help us make our content aesthetically pleasing and easily consumed,” Walker explained.

Fairmont Area Schools Superintendent Joe Brown said the school board had looked at Apptegy a number of years ago but needed the high-tech expertise to implement it. The district now has the people it needs. The package was purchased for $17,438.

“We have to continue to find new ways to communicate with people. In this day and age, most people don’t have landlines, but they do have cell phones,” Brown said.

Will McAdams, another tech specialist for the district, and Walker have spent the past year going through the previous website, getting rid of old content that did not need to be transferred to the new site. They began moving content over at the beginning of June.

Walker describes the new website as more organized, more aesthetically pleasing and easier to navigate.

“The search function actually works, so if you’re lost on the new website, just type what you’re looking for and it will populate the results in real time,” he said.

The website includes a lot of information pertaining to the elementary and high school, but also to the community.

The website also hosts the CER website, so signing up for different CER activities is done there.

“The Big South calendar is a big thing on the website. All of the sporting events and school events for the entire conference are found on the website,” Walker noted.

The staff section will get a new layout that will make it easier to find. How to contact teachers will be found on the site, as their contact information will be listed, along with information about the classes they teach.

All of the district policies and forms are on the website, along with the student handbook. Job vacancies at the school will be listed. The course catalog is on the website, along with the lunch menu and nutrition information.

There will be a “news” page where articles pertaining to the school can be found.

Walker said the app can bring up most information on the website and has a lot of the same features, but not all of them. However, Apptegy is more mobile friendly than the previous site.

Notifications on the app could involve anything from announcing the opening night of a school play to school closings because of inclement weather. It just depends on what the administration chooses to put out. Like any other app, push notifications can be turned off, depending on what the user wants.

Another bonus is that the website is easier to read, in the sense that the text can be enlarged, and there are images and sound effects to make it easier for all viewers. The entire website also can be translated into Spanish with the click of a button.

While the new website is up and running, it is still in the works and more information will be added over the course of the summer. The app is not yet available, but should be ready soon.