Old Colony Archives
Students unveil new town Web site
By Paula Charbonneau, Standard-Times correspondent
May 30, 2000
ROCHESTER -- Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School computer information technology students Jason Madden of Carver, Matt Hoeg of Lakeville, Brian Reynolds of Freetown and David Gifford of Acushnet designed and presented a town Web page to Carver officials this week, saving the town thousands of dollars.
"Everyone really took a great interest in the project," said Carver Town Administrator Richard LaFond. "We had been looking around for some time, asking ourselves how we were going to get with it. Technology-wise, this gives us a broader view for our publicity."
CIT teaching assistant John Souza advised the four students while designing the Web page. He said that once the time involved was considered, the Web page design process could have cost the town anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000.
"They were really enthusiastic and professional," said assistant tax collector Jean McGillicuddy.
The four students, dressed in suits, presented several Carver officials with their Web page this week, demonstrating all the little enhancements they created to make Carver's site interesting as well as dynamic.
The boys arranged a home page with a program that includes a slide show. Other pages feature slide shows as well. The home page has links to pages that describe all the town departments including hours of operation, who's who in the department and fee schedules where applicable.
"This is our library page," said Jason.
"If the librarian had given us more information, I could have done more with it. As it was, I took the information we had and did a great job with this page," he teased.
Librarian Carole Julius, who also chaired the Carver Web Page Design Committee, took the joke in stride. "I feel more informed than when I walked in," she said.
After the students walked the Carver crew through the site, they then turned the site over to Carver's server, www.carverma.org. Officials now have the responsibility of maintaining and updating the site and its pages.
But before everyone left, the students treated them to an outtake show on line showing officials, school teachers and administrators just how much fun they had learning the process.
"I already knew how to design Web pages," said Matt. "This project taught me what it's like to go out and get a contract, interact with clients and do a professional presentation. I liked all the attention we got."
"We basically helped each other out. We all worked together," said David. "I enjoyed this project. It was really an educational experience."
"It was so fun," said Matt. "We did all the outtakes of the fun pictures we took that we did not use. We showed that we have a sense of humor. Even though we appear in our professional attire, we still proved we could have fun and do a great job."
Town and school officials really did have a good time. They were laughing and admiring all the details the boys created.
Administrative Police Sgt. Robert Molonson was so impressed with the boys that he humored their youthful curiosity as much as possible.
"Of course when they came into the police station, they wanted to see the cells," said Sgt. Molonson.
"I also asked if I could hold his gun, but that wasn't happening," said Jason.
The boys did get Mr. Souza to take mug shots and a photo of them in the cell.
"The boys did a sensational job," said Mr. Souza.
"People are not always available to come to Town Hall," said Sgt. Molonson. "Now all the information anyone would need about Carver will be available 24 hours a day. I plan to integrate an e-mail link with a tip line. Otherwise this would have been cost prohibitive in a town our size."