Parents in Hurst, Texas, had the story partly right, and that was enough to cause panic. A deadly green-black mold called stachybotrys had been found at W.A. Porter Elementary School -- the same mold, according to a local television report, that had caused the deaths of three Ohio children in the early 1990s.

"It was happening so quickly, and people were mad, confused, upset," says Robin McClure, who is communications officer for the Birdville Independent School District near Fort Worth, to which Porter Elementary belongs.

McClure was inundated with calls. She tried to explain that while stachybotrys mold had indeed been discovered this spring, the state health department said the infestation was confined to a dead-air space under the roof and had advised waiting until summer to remove it. Her article, "Clearing the Air," appeared on the district's web site for all parents and community leaders to see.

It might be nice to think that technology and Birdville's colorful web site had truly "cleared the air" for the district, but that would be oversimplifying the story, McClure says. Equally important, she says, were her statements on television and radio, and the notes that went home with students. Still, the incident shows how a district web site can be used to communicate quickly and efficiently with a large segment of the public -- something to remember if your school district has not yet posted a home page on the World Wide Web.

In 1993, Birdville became one of the first school districts in Texas to set up a web site. Now the practice has become increasingly common throughout the country. Some web sites are little more than electronic brochures. Others provide up-to-date information on upcoming events, school board meetings, student activities and class projects, as well as links to useful education and community sites.

What works on the web

What makes a good web site? One quality is timeliness. People don't read the same news magazine over and over, and they don't go back to stale web pages.

"You need to treat [a web site] as a publication, and it needs to be dynamic, and it needs to be interesting," says Roger Courtney, Birdville's supervisor of systems and programming. "Otherwise, people won't come back."

This summer, Internet visitors could click on Birdville's home page and find synopses of recent school board actions and agendas for upcoming meetings. There were news releases on student awards and new-student preregistration, e-mail listings for all seven board members, and links to other sites, from the Texas Department of Education to the White House.

The computer link is a tremendous time-saver for Charles Scoma, the board's past president, who travels frequently on business and checks his e-mail every night. Letters from parents could go several days without a response. "This way," Scoma says, "they have a message the same day."

A good site is also interactive -- it allows the public to communicate with the district, says Maureen Reusche, director of curriculum and technology for the Radnor (Pa.) School District. And that means someone had better answer the mail, she says: "If you're going to put an e-mail address in your [web site], you need to be sure you have someone assigned to read the mail and respond to it."

Another sign of a successful web site is its ability to strengthen community ties, and in the Radnor School District, the web has been used to reinforce a sense of community, Reusche says.

The project started last spring, when Reusche was approached by members of the Wayne Business Association, who wanted to coordinate their web pages with those of the school district and Radnor Township. The three hired a firm to create a common page design, then split the $3,000 cost. Reusche said the project set the groundwork for new ties between the township, the business community, and the district. An example is a new adult computer course being offered through the district and the business association.

Birdville designed its own site, but the community impact has been similar, school board members say. All board members have been given laptop computers, which they take to meetings. "It's sort of replaced the traditional briefcase," McClure says. Board members receive notes from parents and documents from the superintendent via e-mail, and are connected to the Internet during sessions.

"I use [the laptop] for conducting meetings," Scoma says. "I have the agenda, and I'm able to make last-minute changes if we need it. I have our policy manual [online], and I also have Robert's Rules of Order."

Scoma says the laptops have saved time and paperwork and cut postage costs. While board members may not surf the Internet very often, he says, it is the "vehicle by which other people communicate with us."

A web site is also an ideal way for children to communicate with students from other schools, other cities, and other countries. A kindergarten teacher at Drums Elementary School near Hazleton, Pa., "receives [e-mail] letters from all over the world," says Al Papada, a physical education teacher who set up the school's extensive web site last summer -- with help from a team of fourth, fifth, and sixth-graders. Teachers from Drums can find links to the Hubble Telescope, The Lesson Plan Page, K-12 Educational Services, and the San Francisco Museum of Art, to name a few. Children can click on Hale-Bopp Comet Watch and "Homework Helpers" in math, writing, geography, and science.

Liability and the First Amendment

Papada recalls "a lot of resistance to introducing links" to the web site of the Hazleton Area School District, to which Drums belongs. But links to other sites are what make Internet research interesting and unique, he says. To guard against children clicking on inappropriate sites, he switched Drums from the WebCrawler search engine to a more restrictive one called Beaucoup.

Hazleton's concerns are well-founded, says Michael J. McGuire, a Minneapolis attorney and expert on Internet law. He says districts should have well-designed policies that address what kind of links they will and will not provide, and districts must be careful about avoiding copyright violations of the material they choose to include.

If a school district has a T-1 line or other direct Internet connection and wants to provide "dial up" access for local households, it becomes, in effect, a commercial provider, and opens itself up to liability concerns, McGuire says. For example, the district could be held responsible for illegal activities that occur on its connection.

"Providing students with Internet access is not as simple a decision as I think a lot of schools think it is," McGuire says, adding that the same holds true for web sites.

Unresolved debates over First Amendment issues also may arise when a district designs a web site. "If your district has a religious club, can it set up a home page?" asks Nancy Willard, a technology consultant in Eugene, Ore. "What about gay and lesbian student organizations?"Advocates of an increased school presence on the web say that while these are legitimate questions, the benefits of having an Internet site far outweigh its costs. And they are looking forward to a time when growing, dynamic web sites are as common to schools as mascots and school songs.

"Everything that happens on the Internet is still an event here," Papada says. "Hopefully, in the future, it won't be an event."

Lawrence Hardy is an associate editor of Electronic School and The American School Board Journal.