by Kenzy Duda ‘28

When comparing Sherwood’s school website to its athletic website, there are noticeable differences in the appearance between the two. This is surprising since one might reasonably assume that the athletic pages of a high school would correspond to the home website. Although MCPS school websites utilize a template from a provider called Optimizely, the county’s athletic websites utilize a third-party provider called PlayOn Sports.

The home pages of MCPS high schools all follow the same general format of having  space for a horizontal image at the top of the page with information below it in three columns that are labeled from left to right: School Information, Announcements, and Upcoming Events. The format creates a continuity from one school website to the next, but it also significantly limits an individual school’s freedom to improve its own site.

“It is my understanding from past people who have overseen the website that we all have to use the MCPS template and while I see the reasoning for consistency, I would like to have more flexibility to build a website that is a better fit for our community,” said Assistant Principal Jennifer Herman.
Sherwood Registrar Michelle Stevens, who also is responsible for managing Sherwood’s website, said that MCPS controls a lot of the site’s appearance and functionality. “I don’t have a lot of creativity or a lot of possibilities to change things because they have so many guidelines in place,” said Stevens. “I feel like each school is different and the website should reflect how different the school is.”

Some high schools have tried to tweak and improve their school websites. Almost every MCPS school uses the Optimizely platform, although some using the template have made them look better. For example, Magruder’s website is unique in that it uses the basic MCPS template but adds an aesthetic flair of its own. These include circular icons and a block-letter font. Springbrook also has a more appealing look for its school website, including crisp colors and a Google Calendar embedded within the homepage. One relatively new item that Sherwood added to its website is a graphic in the right column linking to extracurricular info.

Blair appears to be the only high school in the county that uses its own platform with students under the guidance of a teacher creating the school’s website. The website has quick link buttons to the attendance info, calendar, directions to the school, lunch menus, and the media center. Other notable features include listing unusual schedules, important upcoming dates including the homecoming football game, and a link to buy Blair spirit wear.

Sherwood Media Specialist Stephanie Flaherty creates the Weekly Principal’s Newsletter The Warrior Update that is emailed to community members each Sunday, which is also a ‘Quick Link’ on the school’s homepage. The newsletter began in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to keep families informed about the happenings at school. Flaherty said another reason the newsletter was created was due to complaints over the MCPS website templates as well. The newsletter contains many important links, such as the school calendar, various links to extracurricular information and fundraisers, and to the online Warrior Newspaper.
According to Athletic Director Jason Woodward, this school year MCPS moved athletics onto the PlayOn Sports platform to have a specific universal provider for all the MCPS athletic websites. This allows for easy integration with the ticket website GoFan, and in the future, county-wide rankings.

“MCPS offers the same athletic programs at all 25 high schools,” explained Woodward about why high school athletics are on a different platform than high school websites. ”Whereas, at Sherwood, we may offer an IT program that’s not offered at Magruder. For example, Gaithersburg High School offers Information Technology and Cybersecurity classes, so their website needs to be a little bit different to advertise and get out information about those specific classes.”