For the past couple of months, the Franklin County Schools system has been working behind the scenes to unveil a suite of new websites.

The system is transitioning from School Insites, which was hacked and shut down, to Blackboard.

Teachers and administrators have been meeting and working on trying to make the sites as uniform as possible while retaining a unique look for each school.

“We have been working hard in recent months to build new sites from the ground up,” said Franklin County Superintendent of Education Greg Hamilton. “It has taken the effort of a lot of people systemwide to make this happen.”

While the Franklin County Schools system has a website, each school also maintains its own site.

Because the school system is in the process of changing hosting companies, it might cause some confusion for parents, students and the general public about accessing the new sites – which people might be doing now more than ever, in light of school closures because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The problem is if someone goes to Google and searches for a particular school, Google will direct the user to the old site and not the new sites, where the most recent information is located.

The easiest way to access a particular school’s site is to start at the FCS main site by typing franklin.k12.al.us in the address bar, then click on Select A Site and scroll to the chosen school.

Alternatively, search in Google for Franklin County Alabama Schools and click on the link with the “Double B” icon beside it.

The forced school closures have left teachers scrambling to figure out how to get information and lessons out to their students at home. While teachers are working through different methods – Facebook, Google Classroom, Remind App and more – schools are wanting a central location for information.

“The closures came on us all of a sudden, so it has been tough trying to get this information out to the public,” said Hamilton. “Our schools have done a great job in these trying times.”