Web Design for La Cima Elementary
La Cima Redesign - www.lacimacharterschool.org
I began working with La Cima in the fall of 2024. The executive director of the school, Lori Riddick, needed to overhaul their Wordpress website which had been built a few years ago. In my first week I learned that there were some recent changes in staffing and newly hired administrators weren't familiar with how to make changes to the website-- this became a problem over time as admissions and academic information became out of date, and more importantly, documents required by New York state law needed updating. In addition to these logistical concerns, there was a more obvious need for a visual upgrade.
Preliminary Research
I looked at dozens of school websites, and I found two companies that dominated the market. The first specialized in expensive-looking, more elegant platforms for private schools across Europe and the U.S., called Interactive Schools. The other company seemed to be a common choice for many public school districts, called Educational Networks. Both companies seem to do all the heavy lifting that a typical agency would do for a business: a CMS, content creation, hosting, analytics, and maintenance.
Who are the Steakholders?
What I learned, and what I'm sure these two successful web design firms have long figured out, is that there are a variety of stakeholders a school website must satisfy, and they can be put into 3 categories:
- The prospective family, who carries the enormous burden of deciding their child's future. They are often looking to get to know the school the staff and students, see what it looks like, and what kind of education their child will be receving. They must at the very least be convienced to visit the school, go through a potentially ardurous application process, and finally make the important final decision.
- A district or governing body, who have specific requirements for the website. Things like complaint forms, board minutes, and other documentation must be available, organized, and regularly updated. In the case of public schools, failure to meet these requirements could be unlawful.
- Current families, who go to their school's website as a reference for all kinds of information, documentation (complaint forms, medical forms, etc.), staff emails and phone numbers, arrival/dismissal times, and time sensitive updates like closures.
How can they be satisfied?
Now, there are a variety of ways web designers can satisfy these stakeholders and most school websites share these functions and categories of info in common. Here are just a few:
- The most important Call-to-Action pertains to admissions information, open house tours, and application forms.
- The most "static" information is usually the "About" page, a breakdown of the school's curriculum, and as much flattering student life content as the school is willing to collect.
- Prospective families want to see plenty of photos, they want to read about programming and learn about the staff.
- A school website really comes alive when there is some sort of "live" or recurring element, usually in the form of posts or announcement about the school's weekly goings-on.
- Every New York State public school must publish their board minutes and similar documents somewhere on their website.
Squarespace: a Tough Call
At the time of joining I was proud of the smaller scale websites I was building with JavaScript frameworks and CSS. My knowledge of dynamic CMS-backed solutions was limited, and those projects that required dynamic components usually took a little longer.
Must-haves
From the getgo I settled on a few must-haves for La Cima:
- Make it easy for teachers, administrators, and future hires to make changes and updates.
- The site needs to have Spanish translation (to align with the school's demographics).
- A11Y Accessibility
- Reliable SEO and Analytics capabilities for keeping track of admissions performance.
- Reliable, secure infrastructure (We learned early on that the old website was getting excess traffic from bots, which impacted performance).
For my level of expertise, and the fact that I wasn't working with a team, I realized that building a school website from scratch on a framework while meeting my list of must-haves would be a massive undertaking. I couldn't build system with all the bells and whistles in the amount of time I had. I needed help. I swallowed my pride and mentioned the cost of Squarespace to Lori, she didn't even bat an eye.
Outcome
In a few weeks I had a draft of a website everyone could look at and interact with. I had an iterative back and forth with the administration over the course of the project. We started with a skeleton of a squarespace template and filled in the gaps from there. I brought some pieces from the old website over-- if it ain't broke -- and some completely new pages, like the Principle's Welcome Letter, which I saw on other school websites. Some new copy was added, old copy was edited and brought up to date. I wrote a wiki-style "General Information" page that gives parents the information they need at a glance before diving into the lengthy scholar handbook PDF.
We finished the website in December of 2025, just before holiday break. Although I had to reluctantly and frustratingly deal with Squarespace's limited design capabilities, I made a solution that worked best for the school. The new website for La Cima successfully addressed key needs, simplifying updates for staff and ensuring accessibility, Spanish translation , and reliable analytics for admissions. By understanding the diverse requirements of prospective and current families, as well as governing bodies, we delivered a functional and visually appealing website that serves as a comprehensive resource for the entire school community.
