A screenshot of the new Madison City Schools app on the Apple iPad. (RECORD PHOTO/ALDO AMATO)

By Aldo Amato

Staff Reporter

MADISON — Thanks to the efforts of a young man from Bob Jones High School, information from Madison City Schools is now available for the iPad platform.

Charles Boyd, a junior at Bob Jones, designed the official app for Madison City Schools after being given the go ahead last fall. The app was officially launched on May 17, a year after Boyd entered the design process.

“Providing information about our dynamic school district is vital and we’re excited to be able to offer this to our community,” Superintendant Dr. Dee Fowler said in a statement.

According to an official release by Madison City Schools, the app will make it much faster to gather information about the school system like  grades and attendance records, lunch menus, Calendar and upcoming events, library catalogs, teacher and staff listings at each school, individual school information, zoning information (maps, bus routes, and an address lookup that tells what school zone an address is located in)
, school system contact information and school board policies.

The new tool for Madison City Schools is a vital one in the ever changing social media market. More importantly, the app will give students, teachers and staff the opportunity to download and upload files to their personal school drives, allowing work saved on school computers to be edited on iPad.

“Developing the Madison City Schools app has been exciting and rewarding,” Boyd said. “I have gained valuable experience not only in coding and graphic design, but also in communication and collaboration. I know the app will have a valuable impact in Madison City Schools because it provides quick and simple access to many of the resources students use everyday.”

John Peck with Madison City Schools said Boyd worked directly with Apple to complete the app design process and all information will be incorporated into the 2013-2014 year .

The app is now available in the Apple app store.