To improve communication between students and staff in the Francis Howell School District, the district administration is implementing a plan where each student will receive his or her own email for school purposes.

“It will provide a safe and transparent way of communicating and exchanging work, providing direction and help with the educational process,” Chief Information Officer Ray Eernisse said.

The system, provided by Microsoft Office, will not cost anything to the district and can also be used to create projects between students.

“It will also provide a way for students to communicate with other students in the district or [with] other districts for projects and the exchange of information,” Eernisse said.

The system includes a program called Skydrive which allows students to work on a school project, save it to their email, open it at home and finish it there, regardless of their lack of Microsoft software.

“I like that [students] have access to Microsoft Office because I, and the rest of the foreign language department, want to assign presentations, but it takes up class time,” Dr. Jennifer Miller said. “Now every student has it anywhere, making us more efficient in class.”

The students receiving the emails are all middle school and high school students. The same email will be kept all throughout the seven years the students spend in the FHSD to make education more efficient.

“My projects always get deleted or I forget it at school or at home or something,” junior Alex Wilson said. “It will be easier to communicate with teachers and ask questions over weekends.”