At all educational levels and ages, young people around the region are making the Internet an extension of their school buildings, with all-night libraries, bulletin boards and schoolyards for socializing after homework is done. Bill Willis, the faculty adviser to the Gar-Field Web masters, said he wasn't looking for national recognition when he bought a book about Web page design in January. He was thinking about the printed school fliers, announcements and circulars that too often are lost before parents can read them. Parents want to know what's going on here, including the bell schedule, exam schedule and what activities they can be a part of. Almost all the area's public school districts have sites featuring information about schools, personnel and programs, including the District, Charles and Montgomery counties in Maryland, and Fairfax and Prince William counties in Virginia.
Private schools are well represented, too.
Gonzaga College High School in the District, for instance, offers links to student and alumni home pages, staff e-mail addresses, a countdown to the first day of school and the SAT question of the day. Higher education sites, including George Mason University and the University of the District of Columbia , draw some of the heaviest traffic. Howard University offers access to its library catalog, summer school schedule, a photo gallery with images of Howard's 1900 football team and special projects such as the results of a Million Man March survey. On a lark one day late last year, District resident Jason Southern decided to search the Web for his favorite ice hockey team. But all he discovered about the Washington Capitals were a few lackluster sites with stale statistics.