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BentonHighSchool.com is build completly on Open Source software. All parts and components of the site are build on FREE software avaiable to anyone. Open Source software is supported by a large online community of people that exists to promote and improve their software. You can read more about this software in the history listed of our site. The following is a comprehensive history of BentonHighSchool.com  Fall 1999 – BentonHighSchool.com v1.0 was launched. The domain name and hosting was purchased by Christian Hosting. The site was designed and maintained by Coach Chatterson and the Student Council. The site was built with several static html pages which featured BHS faculty, sports, and course offerings. The site was minimal, but created a web presence for Benton High School.
August 2003 – BentonHighSchool.com v2.0 was launched by new Benton High School math teacher, Stewart Thompson. Stewart took over the site and gave the site template a overhaul using Microsoft FrontPage. Wile the site looked different; the information on the site was basically the same as v1.0. Over the next year, Stewart learned more about web design and began to add new features to the site while keeping up-to-date information about BHS academics, sports, and activities. August 2004 – v2.1 was launched. Over the summer, Stewart redesigned the site and gave it a new template using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and Adobe Photoshop. The site had a new look, but was still updated through static html pages. Also, with the new site came the opportunity for BHS teachers to have their own personal class webpage – classWEBS @ bentonhighschool.com. classWEBS was the first “dynamic” (updated in real-time through a web browser) content on the school website. These sites were (and still are) powered by the content management system, CMSimple. classWEBS offered the BHS teachers a new way to communicate to their students and parents. January 2005 – BentonHighSchool.com launched an all-new alumni section. Among other things, the alumni section allowed BHS alumni to post current information for other alumni to see and contact them. In its first year of existence, the BHS alumni database grew to over 200 members. Also added to the site in January 05 was online password-protected grade access for all of our students. All BHS teacher learned how to post grades to the website and began to post grades weekly. August 2005 – Completely DYNAMIC BentonHighSchool.com v3.0 was launched. During the summer the site webmaster, Stewart Thompson, discovered the Open Source Content Management System, Mambo. Mambo is a completely free powerful content management system which utilizes PHP and MySQL database. During this time, he learned how to use and modify Mambo, and totally redesigned the Benton High School site to a Mambo dynamic web site.  September 2005 – BentonHighSchool.com continued to grow in content and visitors. It had grown so much that the web serve could no longer handle the number of visitors, so the site moved to a new server at Powweb. During this navigation, the site also migrated to the new content management system Joomla!
January 2006 – v3.1 was launched. A new year - a brand new fresh look for the site! January was a big month for BentonHighScchool.com. With the new year came a more "portal" look for our site. The new site template showcases all the great things going on at BHS. The site also added a more comprenhensive RSS Syndication feed for lastest BHS news, athletic news, student and parent news and a Guestbook for our visitors to sign. The url’s of our site were also simplified. The site also improved upon the alumni database and the "Tiger Tales" newsletter subscription option. At the end of the month, a new-and-improved online grades site was also launched at grades.bentonhighschool.com. The new grades site allows the BHS students and parents access all current grades with one simple login. Some other minor improvements were made to the athletics pages to display current news for each sport. Upcoming improvements for v3.2 include adding all course offereings to the academics section.
BentonHighSchool.com’s Awards, Recognitions, and Compliments: Current Site Info: Webmaster/Designer: Stewart Thompson Powered by: Joomla! 1.0.9 Content Management Web Hosting: PowWeb Database: MySQL Web Scripts Language: PHP Template Design: RocketTheme/Modify by Stewart Thompson Images: Macromedia Fireworks MX/Flash MX classWEBS: Powered by CMSimple LEARN MORE ABOUT BENTONHIGHSCHOOL.COM 
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