Two Ohio school districts, the Shaker Heights City School District and the Kalida Local School District, have gone live with SirsiDynix SchoolRooms™. Developed in cooperation with INFOhio, the Information Network for Ohio Schools, SchoolRooms is a comprehensive and integrated multimedia online discovery portal for K-12 schools. SchoolRooms was initially piloted in Shaker Heights; the Kalida Local School District, located in northwest Ohio, was brought online as part of the phase one deployment and also as an effort to introduce and test SchoolRooms in another region of Ohio.
 
Based on the SirsiDynix Rooms™ content management platform, SchoolRooms combines teacher-selected, standards-driven content with student-friendly software to promote exploration and learning and to supplement any curriculum. SirsiDynix and INFOhio worked together closely to identify qualified educators and interested parents to select, design and test SchoolRooms content.
 
"INFOhio is pleased to introduce SchoolRooms to Kalida and Shaker Heights as part of the phase one deployment. We are now looking forward to phase two, in which SchoolRooms will be deployed statewide during the 2007-2008 school year," said Theresa M. Fredericka, INFOhio executive director. "SchoolRooms has provided the K-12 community in Shaker Heights, and now the Kalida Local School District, with reliable and authoritative resources for school assignments and research while meeting national and state education standards. We look forward to students throughout the state discovering information in a new and more engaging way, teachers and librarians accessing a variety of high-quality resources from one easy and convenient search entry, and parents more easily finding appropriate resources to help improve their child's education."
 
INFOhio, the Information Network for Ohio Schools, a virtual K-12 library, transforms teaching and learning by connecting educational resources with the power of information technology. INFOhio provides educational services that can be linked to student achievement and performance, standards-based instruction, teacher effectiveness and technological competency. INFOhio's components include electronic resources for schools, instructional development for teachers, library automation, media booking and a statewide union catalog. For more information, please see www.infohio.org.
 
The Shaker Heights City School District in Ohio includes the city of Shaker Heights and a small portion of Cleveland, encompassing about 7.5 square miles. Long known for the beauty of its neighborhoods and parklands, Shaker Heights is home to 30,000 residents of diverse cultural backgrounds and is renowned for its commitment to educational excellence and close proximity to Cleveland's University Circle, the home of world-class hospitals and museums, The Cleveland Orchestra and Case Western Reserve University. The Shaker Heights schools currently serve about 5,600 students in eight buildings: five K-4 elementary schools (Boulevard, Fernway, Lomond, Mercer and Onaway), Woodbury Elementary School (grades 5 and 6), Shaker Middle School (grades 7 and 8) and Shaker Heights High School (grades 9-12). For more information, please see www.shaker.org.
 
The Kalida Local School District is a rural school district centrally located in Putnam County approximately 20 miles north of Lima, Ohio. The community is comprised of small businesses and family farms where people take great pride in their work and careers. This work ethic flows over to the students at Kalida, where there is a tradition of excellence and a high expectation of academics, accompanied with strong community support. Kalida Local Schools has had six consecutive ODE excellent ratings (2001-2006), and the high school was recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. Last year more than 85 percent of the graduating seniors went on to post-secondary colleges. The district has one elementary building (kindergarten-grade 6) and one high school building (grades 7-12) serving approximately 700 students. For more information, please see www.kalida.k12.oh.us.