Rockdale County Public Schools is working on revamping its website to be more user-friendly and modern looking.

Community Relations Director Cindy Ball presented mock-ups of what the new website might look like to the Board of Education at Thursday night's work session.

One of the biggest differences users might notice is information on the website will be organized around what a parent, student and community visitor might look for and need. Currently, the website is organized according to school system departments.

The color scheme of the website will also change from blue and tan to green to match the new school system logo and the new website would be able to display video clips as well as recent stories and press releases.

Ball said the upgrade would be moving from a 2003 version to a 2010 version of the program used to host the site.

Individual school websites would also be revamped, using the school's colors. Ball said the aim is to "give schools as much real estate as possible on their webpage" for school specific information rather than district information.

Ball said she is hopeful the new website can be up by October, but there's a possibility it could be later than that.

In other Board of Education business:

• Financial Officer Lee Davis reported tentatively good news in the financial outlook. The school will not have to borrow funds like it did last year to cover its cash flow during this period, which sees lower revenue levels since it is before tax bills are issued and paid. Last year, the school had to borrow $6 million and paid about $30,000 in interest.

• The 20-day count also reported 15,986 students, about 99.61 percent of what was projected for this year and about 400 students more than last year. Last year's 20-day count in 2009 showed 15,595 students, which was 91 students more than the 20-day count in 2008.

• CJ Hicks Elementary School principal Sherrod Willaford presented a conversion charter school petition to have CJ Hicks become a International Baccalaureate World School (IBWS) through the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IBPYP). The application to apply for the elementary school IB status and program was approved by 81 percent (71 people) of the staff and had 19 percent (17 people) not in favor. The school board will vote on the petition at their Sept. 16 meeting, 7 p.m.