Instructions for Working with Delaware DOE
District and School Planning Interactive Map
This map can be broken into three
separate sections. The first part (# 1
below) is the menu where you decide what you want to see on your map. This is done by clicking in the square boxes
beside each menu item. The second part
(# 2 below) is the actual map where the choices you make from the menu are
displayed. The third part (# 3 below)
contains a tool bar which allows you to search for active features, zoom in and
out, identify items, etc.
Directions for selecting map layers (menu
items) from section one.
To place items on your map simply
check or uncheck the square box next to the item you want mapped. When the map first opens Towns and School
Districts are already turned on by default.
You can turn these two items off by un-checking them if desired.
Certain menu items cannot be
checked while others are selected, and will reset menu items that are in
conflict. For example checking All
Public Schools will turn off any other school types selected above it
(elementary, high, charter, etc.).
Some menu items are scale dependent
and will not appear as choices until you are closely zoomed into an area on the
map. For instance, City / Town always
appears as a selectable map item; however as you continue to zoom into smaller
areas, Highways and Roads also appear as a menu choice and are automatically
turned on. They can be turned off by
un-checking if desired.
Labels are also scale
dependent. When viewing a map of the
whole state few labels are shown.
However as you zoom in closer, labels for selected items will begin to
appear depending on how densely packed the items are in relation to one
another.
Making a menu item Active by clicking
on the round circle next to it (only one item can be active at a time) forces
the tool bar to use the selected item for searches, queries, web links, etc.
Clicking the top left tool bar
button 
switches between the Menu of items you can
place on your map and the Legend for those items you have selected.
Directions for using the Tool Bar (section three).
A brief description of each Tool Bar button is provided
below:
(See
Tool Bar Examples Below)
Examples
1)
How to Identify
features on your map:
In this
example we will use the identify tool to view the details of Delaware High Schools.
Click the
square box next to High Schools in section
1 to see all the public high schools on your map, and check the round circle to
make this layer Active in the Tool Bar.
Now click the
Identify Tool Bar button 
to activate the Identify function. Move your mouse so that the crosshair + is on
top of the school furthest north at the very top of the state and left mouse
chick. At the bottom of your map you
should now see the following information:
The high
school furthest north in Delaware is Concord High School in the Brandywine
School District. You can now left mouse
click on any high school to see its name and school district.
Now make Cities / Towns the active layer by clicking on the round circle next to it
in section 1. 
You can now click on any yellow area in the
map to get the name and population of the town or city. The Identify Tool will work with every layer
listed in section 1 if the round circle is checked next to it making it active. As you zoom in on an area using the Zoom In Tool Bar Button 
labels will automatically appear on your map
for Visible Layers. Click the Zoom To Full
Extent button 
to return to the full state view.
2)
How to search for features on your map:
Searching for an elementary
school
Click the
square box next to Elementary Schools in section 1 to
see all the elementary schools on your map, and check the round circle to make
this layer active in the Tool Bar.
Now click the binoculars 
from the tool bar in section 3.
Next enter Milford into the box
provided at the bottom of the page, and press Find String.
You should now see the following results at the bottom of
your screen.
As you
can see there are two Elementary Schools in Delaware with the word Milford in
their address. To see Ross Elementary
School click on the number 2 in the left column. The map will now zoom to Ross so that it is
highlighted in blue and appears in the middle of your map. To un-highlight the school click the Clear Selections Button from the Tool
Bar 
. Chick the square box next to Highways to have
them appear on your map. Zoom in to a
small area around Ross Elementary using the zoom button 
. You will now see all the roads around the school with their names. Un-click Roads and then Highways to remove
them from your map, finally click the Zoom
to Full Extent tool bar button to return the map to the full state view. If you had entered Ross instead of Milford
into the find box above, the results would have only returned one school.
This same
set of steps will allow you to search for Cities and Towns, Highways, Roads,
School Districts, Private Schools and Day Care Centers. It is important to remember that a layer has
to be Active (check the round circle) in order to search it for names. Lastly, if you do not find the item you are
searching for, try again using less information (i.e. enter Cab instead of Cab Calloway
School of The Arts).
3)
How to Pop-up Websites for selected layers on your map:
Bringing up School Profile
Websites
(Note: you may have to disable popup window
blocking for this site on some browsers, click
here for
Click on
the round circle next to School District to make it Active 
. Now click on the Hyperlink Tool 
to activate the websites for each school
district. Finally move the crosshair +
over any school district and left mouse click, a new page will now open with
the selected district website displayed.
Three
layers on this map contain web links:
Public
Schools (elementary, middle, votech, charter, etc.)
City /
Town
School
District
Not every
Town has an active web site, if you click on a town that does not have a site
you will receive a message saying No Site Available.
4)
How to Query map features to identity specific sites meeting
your criteria:
Find all the Elementary schools in Delaware
with an enrollment greater than 800
Click on
the square and circle next to Elementary Schools 
.
Now click
on the Query
Tool 
to activate the query box on the bottom of
your screen.
In the
first box on your left click on the 
and select ENROLLMENT from the list.
Since we want all schools with enrollment
greater than 800 choose the Operator > from the second box
. Now
enter the number 800 in the third Value box 
. Finally click the Add to Query String button 
to automatically generate your Query statement
and press the Execute 
button to run your query. Four schools should now light up on your map
and their names should appear at the bottom on your screen.
Complex Queries Find all Elementary Schools
with enrollment less than 500 in Zip Code 19711.
Press the
Clear
Selection button to remove the results of your last
query and re-click the Query tool to start another session. Select ENROLLMENT
from the first Field Box, the less than
sign < from the second Operator
Box and enter 500 into the Value box and press Add to Query
String.
DO NOT PRESS EXECUTE. Now press
the And button 
, the word AND will
now appear in your Query String box.
Next return to the first Field box and select Zip
,
move right to the Operator box and select
= 
, and enter 19711 into the Value box 
.
Finally press Add to Query String and you are ready to Execute your new
Query. Press Execute - two schools should light up on your map and
the following should appear on the bottom of your page:
If you
were to click on the Rec 1 or 2 in the table
above, the map would zoom to the two schools listed. Click Clear Selection button and the Zoom to Full Extent button to return your map to where you started.
The Query tool can be used on any layer displayed on the map. This tool is especially useful when working
with the Poverty, Income, Language Difficulty, and other layers listed at the
bottom of the Table of Contents shown in section one.
5)
How to create buffers around selected map features
Find all Day Care Centers within half a mile
of North Georgetown Elementary School
First we
need to find the elementary schools in Georgetown. Click on the square and round circle next to
City / Town to make layer visible and active 
. Now click on the Find Tool 
and type Georgetown into the box provided at
the bottom of the page, and press Find String.
You should
only see one result at the bottom of your screen. 
Click on the number 1 to the left of Georgetown to zoom to this town. Now click on the square and circle next to
Elementary Schools to make this layer visible and active 
. Click
the Clear button so that nothing is selected 
. You should now see two elementary schools on
your map; North Georgetown and Georgetown.
We are now going to select North Georgetown Elementary by drawing a
square around it with the Select Tool 
. Press
the select tool then move the crosshair + over to North
Georgetown Elementary, hold down the Left mouse button and draw a square around
the school. When you release the button
North Georgetown will be highlighted in blue 
.
Now we are
going to identify all the Day Care Centers within a half mile of our
school. Click on the square next to Day
Care Centers 
so that they appear on your map. Now click on the Buffer Tool
to create the half mile buffer around our
selected school. In the first box at the
bottom of the page that says No Layer click on the selection arrow 
and choose Day Care Centers from the middle of the pop-up box. The Highlight
features from box should now look like this:
. In
the next box enter .5 to select the area
within half a mile of the school 
and check the Display Attributes box 
. Finally press the Create Buffer button 
. On your screen you will see a light blue
circle with three bright blue dots (the school and two day care centers. The bottom of your screen will look like
this:
There are
two day care centers within half a mile of Georgetown Elementary, one with a
capacity of 6 children and the other with a capacity of 9.
6)
How to create a Bookmark for the Interactive School District
Map:
If you
create a bookmark while connected to this website it will not start the next
time you try to open it. If you wish to
bookmark this site directly you will need to edit your bookmark after you add
it to your favorites. You can edit your
bookmark by Right clicking on it from
your Favorites menu
.
Once you right click select Properties from the
bottom of the popup menu, this opens a Properties Window which allows you to edit the URL or web address. To successfully bookmark this map page you
must DELETE the following /viewer.htm from the
address as it appears in the 
URL
window. Once /viewer.htm has been
deleted press OK at the bottom of the
window and the Interactive Map should start without any problems the next time
you select the bookmark.
Questions ?
Questions
can be directed to Don Berry 302-735-4152.
Email: dberry at doe.k12.de.us