e've provided answers here to some of the most commonly asked questions about School Webmasters designed sites. If you don't find an answer to your question here, please contact us directly at info@schoolwebmasters.com and we'll get back to you right away. Or, if you'd prefer not to wait for an e-mail response, call us at (602) 750-4556.
Our school's site is hard to keep current, our staff is busy. What's the solution?
We're a small district without a lot of money. How can we afford a Web site?
What does E-rate do for our school?
What is School Webmasters LLC’s SPIN Number?
As our school's Parent Organization, we raise student funds. How will a Web site help?
Our school Web site was created by some of our students. Anything wrong with that?
We are a small but growing school trying to attract outstanding teachers. How will a Web site help?
Our district parents are very involved in their children's education. How will a Web site improve communication?
How can we let our community share in the many student successes we enjoy?
As a school administrator, how can I make better use of my school Web site?
Can you build our school a site that we can update ourselves?
What does it usually cost for School Webmasters to develop a small school's Web site?
What’s the difference between a district Web site and a school Web site?
What should my school’s Web site contain?
We’re not sure what we should include in our school’s site. Will School Webmasters make recommendations?
Our school's site is hard to keep current. Our staff are already overwhelmed. What's the solution?
School Webmasters handles all updates, changes, additions, and improvements to your school's Web site. We'll even send out reminders to designated staff members, gathering the information and writing the content that will keep your site up-to-date. Your IT staff usually have their hands full with school technology issues and expecting them to be designers, writers, and manage the site's content can be unrealistic. Letting School Webmasters manage your Web site provides you with the skill sets you need without overburdening an already busy staff.We're a small district or charter school without a lot of money. How can we afford a professional Web site?
Open enrollment has created a competitive educational environment. You can't afford NOT to have a Web site. School Webmasters simply designs your site to fit your budget, then we can add to it as your needs require. Let us make recommendations for a basic site and suggestions for expansion and improvements throughout the year. Updates are included as a part of our service so your site will soon rival those of much larger schools without high development/design fees.What does E-rate do for our school?
E-rate provides discounts to help many U.S. schools receive affordable telecommunications and Internet access. School discounts can range from 20% to 90% of the costs of eligible services, which is dependent upon the level of poverty and the urban/rural status of the population your school serves.What is School Webmasters SPIN Number?
School Webmasters's SPIN Number is 143027799 (formerly known as ScribeWrite LLC). You'll need this number in order to list us as a Service Provider in your E-rate application. To find out more about E-rate, click here.As our school's Parent Organization, we need to raise funds for our students. How will a Web site help?
As you know, good communication is essential to getting and keeping parents involved in their children's education (and helping). What better way to keep parents and community informed than a Web site that is available 24 / 7. When you have a fund raiser, make it easy to donate or purchase by letting parents, teachers, and community members pay online!We have a school Web site created for us by some of our students. Wouldn't that better represent us than a professionally-designed site?
It is a great learning opportunity for students, but your Web site is often the first impression of what your school or district has to offer. If your site isn't professional, informative, up-to-date, and easy to navigate, it is doing you a disservice. Save those student project sites for class pages or club and team pages and link to them from your school or district site. You can have the best of both worlds without compromising a thing!We are a small but growing school district who is having trouble attracting outstanding teachers. How would I use a Web site to do that?
Recruiting is an expensive, on-going cost of maintaining a top-quality educational team. A large percentage of in-state and out-of-state recruiting will be conducted over the Internet this year. To compete in the market, you must make your school or district easy to find, provide a user-friendly application process and online access to employment information. Our Web sites makes this easy. You'll have updated job postings, salary schedules, employee benefit information, links to state certification requirements, and local city and county information—all without the expense of printing a single page.Our district parents are very involved in their children's education. How could we better use our Web site to improve communication?
By creating an easy-to-access online presence, you can communicate important events, inform parents, share student successes, and involve the community. Visitors to your Web site can learn all they need to know, like: what sets your school apart from the rest, how to register new students, what activities and events are planned, when vacation breaks are scheduled, and how they can most effectively communicate with the school. You can even let parents sign up for online reminders for important events and they'll receive reminder e-mails!
Our school is proud of its students accomplishments. What are some ways to let our community know about their successes?
Some of the more common ways to recognize students is to include recognition of Students of the Month, Honor Rolls, team wins, and other special recognitions. Be sure there is a place just for these announcements and encourage your students to tell their parents that they are included on the Web site this month.As a school administrator, how can I make better use of my school Web site?
Providing outstanding customer service is critical to your school's reputation (and yours as an administrator). As a school, your customers are your students, their parents, community members, Board Members, and your teachers and staff. With such a wide array of customer needs, you'll want to make use of every resource that can help you serve your customers better while taking advantage of any time or money-saving benefits available. A Web site can be just such a resource. Use it to include Board Agendas, links to School Report Cards, post RFP and vendor information, contact information, important announcements, job openings, and much more. You'll save your staff time, your school money, and build excellent public relations.Can you build our school a site that we can update ourselves?
Yes, we can, if that's what you desire. However, for the same price we'll handle all your updates for you and even send out monthly reminders so that this important tool isn't overlooked by your busy staff. This includes adding pages when necessary, posting documents, creating graphics, and writing content as necessary. So, why not take advantage of these included services when it lets your staff focus on their primary responsibilities (while we focus on making sure you look good)?What does it usually cost for School Webmasters to develop a school or district Web site?
That will depend on your school's needs. An average elementary school site is often between 6-8 pages in length and averages around $1200. A district site is often between 20-30 pages and ranges between $2500-$4500. This includes site development, custom design, content writing, and continued customer service. Hosting is $129 a month and includes monthly updates, additional pages, changes, and customizations.What’s the difference in a district Web site and a school Web site?
Your district site serves a wider purpose and therefore must be more comprehensive. It should be a resource for recruitment, provide easy access for employee information, allow vendors access to posted RFPs, keep the local community informed--in other words, it is more externally focused. Your individual school sites are focused on academic achievements, student progress, teacher recognitions, sharing creative and athletic talents, and the critical aspect of keeping everyone informed (especially parents). These sites should show off your successes, brag about your progress, and let the world know what makes you shine.What should my school’s Web site contain?
Each school's site should be unique. School Webmasters will research your "local" competitors (schools or districts in your open enrollment area, when it applies), discuss your school's goals and differentiators with you, and then, based upon our experience with the needs of educational organizations, we'll provide you with a list of recommendations. We'll often recommend a smaller site, in order to keep within your desired budget, and then continue to build out your site through monthly updates (making your site affordable without compromising quality or size).We’re not sure what we should include in our school’s site. Will School Webmasters make recommendations?
No worries. School Webmasters specializes in school and district Web site development. After research and interviews with your key administrators, we'll make recommendations that will accomplish your goals while staying within your budget parameters.
