I don't like blogs where parents & teachers can post their opinions. I think you are opening a can of worms. The chances of someone posting negative comments & using it for the wrong purpose are getting higher all the time. The same goes for email distribution lists. We had incidents of a mother that used the distribution list that she was on for a committee to start rumors about the PTO and members of the board.
You really have to consider all the possibilities even though we try to always keep a positive outlook. Just read some of these posts. Parents can be worse than the kids when it comes to gossip, teasing and bullying!
The navigation bar to the left will give you a pretty good idea of what I have already included and what I plan on adding this year.
Last year the PTO website was nothing more than a single picture of the new playground, so I made it a priority last year. Even mentioned it in my PTO Group of the Year submission, being that I'm so proud of it, but couldn't even get an Honorable Mention... :\
Make sure you have plenty of contact information: Name and phone numbers for exec. board members and chairpersons of all your events
Make sure you have a full school year calendar listing all events the PTO will have during the year. Parents can plan ahead accordingly.
Include copies of all your standard forms (membership, volunteer forms, spiritwear purchase forms, etc.)
List the dates of all your meetings as well as advertise the dates of your board of education meetings. Last year we had issues in the district and parents came to the PTO to complain. We told them we didn't make school policies & they needed to bring this to the board of ed. When they said they didn't know how, we directed them to look in their directory or on the website for the dates and times of the board of ed meetings!
Post copies of your newsletters so parents can get a copy in the event it comes home torn or wet!
Post your PTO agenda & minutes of all meetings for those parents that cannot attend. This way they can keep up on all PTO news.
My suggestions are more administrative than content driven.
I think PTO website administrators have an obligation to produce an accessible website that meets ADA (American with Disability Act) Guidelines. This can be a complicated area and some aspects may be beyond the newcomer to web design. But there are basics that are really easy to understand. Like ALT-Tags >> pictures/graphics should have short text descriptions. (Do you see text pop up when your mouse moves over it when you read your website?) There are certain color and contrast combinations that aren't acceptable due to color blindness or low vision users. The basics aren't that hard, even for a novice. If you are paying someone, then they should understand terms like "ADA", "Accessible", and "508".
On content, it rarely works well to have something that changes too often. It's difficult to keep up and often becomes out of date. So simplify and focus mostly on static documents. Information about upcoming events, posting minutes, and meeting notices, etc. - great. Posting a daily update of a fundraiser (over a long period)...can you keep up? Would weekly/monthly be more realistic?
Privacy - remember that the internet is open to the world. There are all kids of automated programs and software mining information. Be very sensitive about this when displaying pictures and captioning them with children's names, deciding to post a list of names with contact information (especially email addresses), or any display of personal information.
Think about not only what you can do this year, but is it likely future years' officers will continue? If not, maybe it's better not to get everyone used to certain tools. For instance, I'd be hesistant to run a Board or Forum specifically for a PTO. That's a lot of work, when something like Yahoo Groups or Google Groups would probably suit just as well.
