Whitney High now has its own app.

Assistant Principal Mrs. Jennifer Hanks, with the help of Think Up Web Solutions worker Carin Lane, developed an interactive app for Whitney High students, parents and teachers.

“[Lane] met with me to go over the sample template for the app. She would show me ‘This is what I’m thinking,’ and we would work out our logos, and fit out the rest of the app,” Hanks said.

The whole process of creating the app took about five weeks, starting in the beginning of September.

“We were working back and forth on [the app] the whole time, and that is why we went with a soft opening… you don’t want to have 3,000 people download it and have some major glitches,” Hanks said.

Instead of a big official release, Hanks went with a more subtle “soft opening” to test the waters and figure out how well the app would be received.

“The only info we have already given out has been an email home to parents, but even with that soft opening, we already have over 600 downloads… it is being really really well received,” Hanks said.

The app was designed to make a variety of information about events and links for academics and athletics more readily available and more easily accessible.

For example, upon opening the app there is a row of icons at the bottom of the screen, each linking to a different page of the app. By clicking the More icon, a bar of options appear, allowing the user to choose between multiple resources, such as Academic Resources all the way to Feedback.

From there, the app leads the user to various links under that category. Under the Academic Resources tab, the options of viewing Edline, Schoology, and Naviance all appear, and link to the website clicked.

Whereas if WHS Info is tapped on the main opening screen of the app, links to files of the campus map, bell schedule, and even the district calendar are all provided in a series of tabs.

Hanks wanted this feature of connection to all the school-related sources to remain a fairly large component of the apps design, so both Lane and Hanks worked hard to format the app as best to suit this need as possible.

“I’m hoping that the students and parents are finding the way we categorize to be useful, because we wanted to separate academics from the athletics and more event-type subjects,” Hanks said.

A user of the app, Amir Chadha believes it to be a great improvement to Whitney’s presence in the technological world.

“So much of the world is technology now, that having something electronic for school means I can easily access help with almost anything instantly,” Chadha said.

Hanks hopes that as the app continues to grow and develop, more and more people will come to use it as a tool that anyone can use for their school-related needs.

by JOEL TIMMS