While many school communities were enjoying a slower summer schedule, several districts were hard at work bringing new websites across the finish line before the first days of school came into view.

Bentonville Schools, Poudre School District, York County School Division, and others each took a different approach, but created experiences that celebrate their communities and support the people who rely on them every day.

July's district website launches were each shaped by the needs of families, staff, students, and the wider community: streamlined navigation, mobile-friendly resources, stronger storytelling, and thoughtful use of AI all show how good design can make district information easier to find and school stories easier to share.

Take a look at the details, explore the full sites, and gather a few ideas for your next school website redesign!

Bentonville School District

Bentonville Schools’ new website offers a cool, confident, and welcoming introduction to the district. Inviting colors, rounded shapes, and flowing content blocks give the design a sense of calm as a slowed video montage brings students, programs, and everyday school experiences into view. It’s a bit of a nice change compared to so many of the high-impact, energetic videos we often see shown in the header.

The homepage leads with a message about excellence and opportunity, and the shield-inspired visuals carry elements of the district’s identity through smaller design elements— a subtle way to connect the brand.

Take a closer look at:

• Users can see the range of experiences students can pursue across the district, and the college slider showing where graduates have continued their education.
   
• Photo-based calls to action highlighting arts, athletics, and career and technical education. 
   
• Fast facts and interactive tabs make up the “Bentonville Difference” and provide an easy way for families to explore academics, arts, athletics, and career pathways.

Navigation supports that same sense of ease:

• Prominent links connect visitors with admissions, tours, careers, and calendars, while the main menu organizes district information, schools, academics, departments, and family resources.
   
• Visitors can also move among nearly 30 school websites that follow a similar structure and layout for a consistent experience across the district.
   
• And for an even quicker search, Bentonville has rebranded Finalsite’s AI-powered website assistant, Ask AI, as simply “George.” Families can ask George about programs, events, contact information, and other school-approved content without having to search through several pages.​​​​

The homepage closes with “Forward Momentum” and the call to “Step into Excellence,” rounding out a collection of district news, events, and student achievements. It’s a fitting theme for a website that balances Bentonville’s established reputation with the many opportunities available to its students—wonderful job!

Poudre School District

Poudre School District delivers an energetic, spirited welcome while keeping the family experience focused and easy to navigate. Guided by the message “Educate…Every Child, Every Day,” the homepage opens with a high-action video montage showcasing learning, connection, and celebration across the district. Smiling students, active classrooms, and graduation caps filling the sky help visitors see the people and moments behind the PSD story. 

It’s a lively but focused experience that respects families’ time and gives them a sense of the district’s personality before directing them to the information they came to find, thanks to short, scannable (and mobile-friendly!) content.

More features include:

• The homepage keeps that family-first approach as visitors scroll. District news and upcoming events appear together, giving users one place to find announcements, school stories, board meetings, important dates, and other community updates.
   
• Further down the page, fast facts are paired with imagery of achievement, belonging, graduation, and extracurricular success to help prospective families understand what choosing PSD can mean for their children, and also to give current families and staff more reasons to feel proud of their schools.
   
• Secondary colors bring more energy to these content blocks while helping each fact stand apart. Buttons, calls to action, backgrounds, and other branded details create consistency across the page without making every section look the same.

The main navigation opens into a full-width panel that organizes a large amount of district information into approachable categories. Visitors can explore the district, understand why families choose PSD, browse academic programs, and more.

Users may notice the AudioEye accessibility tool at the bottom left, which allows them to adjust browsing preferences to suit their needs. That commitment supports a website experience designed to serve a wide community across devices, abilities, and browsing preferences.

Congratulations to PSD on a launch that represents its community and gives families an easier way to stay connected.

York County School Division

York County School Division’s new website captures the energy of its schools from the opening moments. The words “Embrace. Engage. Empower.” appear over a video montage featuring student performances, creative projects, and plenty of personality, including a horse offering high-fives (or maybe high fours?)

From there, the homepage welcomes visitors to a school community serving more than 13,000 students across 19 schools. Three prominent calls to action invite users to Explore, Enroll, or Apply, giving families, community members, and prospective employees an immediate next step based on why they came to the site.

Take a look at:

• Throughout all the buttons, backgrounds, and other design elements, blues and greens establish a consistent visual identity across the website, as secondary colors add variety to individual content blocks without pulling the experience away from the division’s main brand. Each section feels distinct, while the full page still works as one connected experience.
   
• The website balances district storytelling with the day-to-day information. A homepage spotlight features school-year updates, open house schedules, leadership announcements, and recent news. An events section brings key dates front and center, as the Points of Pride section gives the division’s achievements a bigger place in its story.
   
• Navigation has also been simplified around standard categories such as About Us, Academics, Programs and Services, Careers, and Get Involved. Separate portals connect students, families, and employees to frequently used platforms, while an expanded search experience highlights popular needs, like calendars, meals, transportation, registration, job openings, and school safety.
   
• The level of care extends into the interior landing pages, which use headers, custom tabbed content, and color-coded sections to break detailed information into more manageable pieces.
   
• The Careers and About Us pages are a strong example of that. It introduces the district’s people, culture, benefits, professional development opportunities, and available roles. There , you’ll find testimonials that add personal perspectives from teachers and staff who describe a collaborative culture, supportive colleagues, and a shared commitment to student success.
   
• One-click translation through Weglot offers another important layer of access, allowing families to change site content into languages such as Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Japanese.

The recent launch does a great job of sharing who York County School Division is, what it values, and how students and employees can build their futures there.

As shared by the district: “Over the past year, we've worked to create a website that better serves our students, families, staff, and community. Designed with our users in mind, the new site offers a modern look, improved navigation, enhanced accessibility, and a mobile-friendly experience, making it easier than ever to find the information you need.”

East Aurora School District 131

East Aurora School District 131’s “grEAt” new site supports the district's daily community needs while giving more space to share its story. And while it’s a modest scope, the design packs a punch with a welcoming, user-friendly experience that leaves room to share the programs, stories, and achievements that shape the district.

Check out these highlights:

• Upcoming events appear near the top of the homepage, and families can quickly see board meetings, school activities, registration events, school closures, and other district dates thanks to a row of mobile-friendly icons that cuts straight to common tasks without having to search through multiple sections of the site.
   
• Recent features celebrate student achievements, introduce new leaders, share family resources, and promote upcoming programs, and it's this balance that helps the site serve as both a dependable information source and a place where East Aurora can recognize the people and experiences moving the district forward.
   
• Gradient backgrounds, district buildings, logos, and other branded details add personality throughout the design, making the site more connected to the East Aurora brand while keeping the functional parts of the page easy to scan.
   
• The main navigation organizes content into three primary areas: Our District, Departments, and Community, and from there, visitors can access district leadership, schools, staff directories, academic services, transportation, enrollment, calendars, family information, and other resources.
   
• The menu structure works especially well on mobile devices, and its submenus divide larger sections into manageable groups, helping families navigate the site without facing long, crowded pages. 

Visitors who still have questions can turn to the district’s website assistant, Ask D131, to type questions about publicly available site content and uploaded district information, including programs, events, enrollment, departments, and contact details. It's yet another way to locate answers when they may not know which page or menu section contains the information they need.

Congrats to East Aurora School District 131 on a strong new website and a digital foundation that can continue growing alongside its students, families, and schools.

Wake County Public School System

How do you build a website for more than 161,000 students and families across 200+ schools?

You begin with the needs that bring families, students, employees, and community members to the site each day. Wake County Public School System’s new website focuses on supporting, informing, and connecting one of the nation’s largest school communities through helpful and flexible content organization.

Everything from transportation and meals to district updates and family services- the site gives high-demand information a place. Take a closer look at:

• Mobile-friendly icons near the top of the homepage connect users with district calendars, library catalogs, graduation information, and safety reporting. Families can move directly toward a common task without searching through several departments or menu levels.
   
• Meanwhile, prominent links for enrollment and careers also support two of the district’s largest audiences. New families can begin the student registration process, while prospective employees can explore opportunities to join a system supported by nearly 20,000 employees, including more than 10,000 teachers.

The homepage brings several district communication channels into one organized experience.

• A Family Newsletter section gives families access to recent resources and engagement opportunities.
   
• District Updates share leadership announcements, program information, student stories, and other systemwide news.
   
• The In the Spotlight section focuses on information that may require greater attention, and it’s this mix that helps the homepage serve as both an information center and a storytelling platform. 

To pull back the curtain a bit, every homepage panel, including the hero, is built using Finalsite Posts. That “create once, publish everywhere” approach gives Wake County greater flexibility to manage and reuse content across the site. District teams can publish information once, organize it by category and tag, and post it in the sections where each audience is most likely to need it.

For a district serving hundreds of schools and thousands of employees, that flexibility helps create a more sustainable publishing process, so content can stay current while the overall design and hierarchy stay consistent.

The custom Posts, together with filters, tabs, accordions, and reusable posts, create a content system suited to the district's size and complexity.

• The Family Support page allows visitors to search and filter information across dozens of categories, including academic support, behavioral health, childcare, food resources, mental health, safety, special education, technology, transportation, tutoring, and grade-specific guidance.
   
• The Partnerships and Community page uses a similar model to organize opportunities for businesses, volunteers, researchers, advertisers, community partners, and nonprofit organizations. 
   
• On the Pre-K and Early Childhood page, for example, families receive an introduction to programs serving children from birth through kindergarten. From there, they can search resources related to developmental screenings, parent workshops, preschool services, and more.

Wake County’s new website shows how content organization can support a district of significant scale. High-demand resources stay close, district updates help families stay informed, and searchable resources make extensive collections easier to navigate.

Congratulations to the district on launching an extensive new website built to inform, connect, and support its community, and congrats to all districts on their new sites!
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. At Finalsite, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, storytelling, coffee, and creating content that connects.