Blue Hills New Website Has "Pizazz"

There is a new, vibrant face to in Canton. The vocational high school debuted its new website on March 2–and staff, students and visitors are liking the upgrade.

“It’s got a lot of pizazz,” Communications Specialist and Webmaster Judy Bass said of www.bluehills.org.

The website is the first thing a new or perspective student sees. “That’s the face (of Blue Hills),” Blue Hills Assistant Superintendent and Principal Michael Barrett said. “It’s the most important. We wanted it to be user friendly, something to jump out at you, and (for viewers to) not get bored clicking around. I think we accomplished that.”

In the first couple of days after the new website launched, the site received close to 1,000 hits, Barrett said, and that was before a big announcement had been made.

Abi Cushman of Brown Bear Creative in Connecticut worked with Barrett to revamp the site. The pair started working on the site right before Thanksgiving and officially finished March 2 when it launched.

The site features drop down menus and quick links on the front page, along with photos, slideshows, the lunch menu and an online application process.

“We feel very proud of it,” Bass said.  “(Cushman) did an excellent job of understanding what the concept was and putting it together.”

Barrett said when he took over as assistant superintendent/principal in September, making the school front lobby and the website more welcoming were two priorities. Both are the first thing folks see when they enter Blue Hills in person, or virtually.

“The (old) website wasn’t a great look for the school,” he said. Visitors need to see something welcoming, he said. 

After three months of hard work, the newly designed www.bluehills.org has a color scheme and “photos that really show what we do here. This is an outstanding school,” the principal said. The website now “really shows what Blue Hills has and is.”

The new site is “visually more impressive with more color, more photos, pictures of student activities and students learning and student clubs,” Bass said. “It really is Blue Hills at your fingertips.”

Students, staff and parents all regularly use the site and the response to the updated site “has been incredible,” Bass said. “People are really impressed.”