Over winter break, LT’s website, its biggest vehicle for communication, underwent a redesign. Whether one is a student, staff member, parent, or community member, the website is the place to go for information regarding the school. The goal of the rebrand was to make improvements to achieve a better user experience for all, Community Relations Coordinator Mary Lin Muscolino said. So far, the community feedback has been positive. 

“We’re working out the bugs and the kinks that come along with anytime someone  implements something new from a technical front,” Muscolino said “Although overall, as far as the look, the feel, and the functionality of the website, people are thrilled.”

On Jan. 9, when the updated website was announced, Superintendent Brian Waterman sent out an email addressed to the LT community highlighting the change. 

“During this transition process, our team completed an extensive review of the previous website, and have brought to life a vision,” Waterman said in the email. “[The vision] honors feedback from our community and incorporates input received from the website committee.”

The referenced “website committee” was only established to review the website. It was specifically set up to make recommendations, and evaluate what changes needed to be made, according to Muscolino. The next step was working with a company called Blackboard, which helped create the structure of the website, and make the design a reality. 

“This team got together, they evaluated the current website, and [from that] they would like to see these types of changes,” Muscolino said. “That’s where Blackboard then said, ‘Okay we’ll create that template.’”

The rebranding was a planned decision that was overdue, Electronic Communication Specialist Suzanne Andersen said. Since technology changes so frequently, the district aims to look at new designs every four to five years.

“We had originally started talks about a new web design just prior to the start of the pandemic,” Andersen said. “We received the template on [Dec. 16], and worked tirelessly over winter break to get the website ready for launch.”

The design process took over a year, and feedback from the community was the greatest consideration, Andersen said. A survey was sent out to gather information. 

“We took the results from our survey and broke down the data,” Andersen said “We used this information to look at what was needed to improve the current layout, keeping in mind over half of our views come from a mobile device.” 

One example of a significant change was implementing easy access to athletic schedules, which was a common complaint. 

“[It] is now displayed on our slide out menu,” Andersen said. 

Andersen has been a part of three website redesigns taking place in 2012, 2016, and 2023. 

“I worked with the previous Community Relations Coordinator, Jennifer Bialobok from the beginning of the process and brought the new website to completion with the new Community Relations Coordinator [Muscolino],” Andersen said. 

Muscolino had previously worked in advertising and marketing in higher education, mainly colleges. 

“I decided to make a shift with my career, and leave the corporate world to come here when my daughter [was] going to be a freshman,”  Muscolino said. 

She has been able to take her experience from her previous career and implement it here. 

“I feel really invested [in the website] because I live here, I’m part of the community, and I have a daughter at LT,” Muscolino said. 

Readers can visit the redesigned website with this link.