SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT
Community ISD
Helping families find the right school—and helping staff verify eligibility—with Finalsite Explore
Community ISD is growing fast. In the last two decades, student growth has skyrocketed by more than 270%.
And in a little more than four years, enrollment has more than doubled as new development brings families into communities across southeast Collin County. That growth raises an important question for every new family: Where does my child go to school?
The fast-growing Texas district stretches across four towns and unincorporated areas, with an attendance map the district’s director of communications, Cooper Welch, describes as “bumpy”—including pockets of homes that alternate between Community ISD and neighboring districts.
That geography created a high-stakes first question for families: Are we zoned for Community ISD, and if so, which campus should our child attend?
At a Glance
Community ISD is a fast-growing public school district serving families across four towns and surrounding unincorporated areas. Because it is a closed district with strict campus attendance zones, accurate address and boundary information is essential for enrollment.
“Explore provides a quick and easy process for them to find out where they should be. Just type your address in, select the relevant grade, and you immediately know if you are zoned for Community ISD and what campus to attend.”COOPER WELCH
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
A Simple Question—with a Complicated Map
Community ISD needed an accurate, affordable way to answer that question quickly.
The district also wanted families’ first interaction to introduce them to the programs, identity, and opportunities available at each school—not stop at a pin on a map.
With budget challenges affecting public school districts across Texas, Community ISD closely reviewed contracts and looked for services that aligned with the district’s financial realities without sacrificing reliability.
After years of success with Finalsite for its website, Cooper started there.
New parents—many arriving from out of state—did not always know which Community ISD campus served their address, and in some cases, they didn’t know whether their home was located within Community ISD at all.
Finalsite’s interactive school finder, Explore, gives families a direct path from address to answer. And because Explore is embedded into the district website, families can search by address and grade, see which campus serves them, and open a detailed school profile without managing multiple webpages or leaving the district’s experience.
More Than a Boundary Lookup
Community ISD’s previous school finder identified a student’s zoned campus, but the experience ended there. Explore made that same lookup more useful.
Once a family finds its campus, the result includes a quick overview of the school’s history and identity, its tagline, programs offered, and contact information. Each listing can be customized to match the district website while highlighting what makes that campus distinct.
In a growing district where many families are encountering Community ISD for the first time, those features made a big difference.
“With all of these new families coming to our district, it’s hard for families to know about all of the programs and opportunities available to students living within our school district," shared Cooper. “Explore provides a quick reference of programs available, opening the door to a conversation for our parents about the great things happening in public schools.”
For Cooper, Explore’s strongest capabilities were the ones that made the experience dependable: ease of use, reliable address and campus-location data, and the ability to put useful information in front of prospective families during their very first interaction with the district.
From Setup to Launch in Days
The implementation moved quickly. After meeting with his Finalsite implementation specialist, Cooper received training and began working in Explore within 24 hours. He completed the district’s implementation documentation and added school information in two days. The experience went live just two days later.
While Finalsite continues to provide support and training, Community ISD can manage its school-search experience from one place, customize individual listings, and update the content families see.
“The Finalsite team has always worked hard to provide a stellar level of customer service to my schools,” Cooper said. “I have never gone more than 24 hours waiting for assistance.”
Making Enrollment Work Possible Again
Previously, a service interruption with the district’s former provider had left the clerks without a way to verify whether a student was eligible to enroll. Their workaround was manual: search an address in Google Maps, then compare it with a physical district map.
Explore replaced that manual comparison with a searchable, address-based experience.
After launching Finalsite Explore, some of the earliest positive feedback came from the staff closest to the operational problem: the district’s Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) clerks in the enrollment office.
Not only can families get an answer within seconds, but the enrollment staff also have a tool to confirm a student’s eligibility.“When Explore was rolled out, clerks in the enrollment office said it was even better than our previous solution, and made their job possible again.”
“Starting off on the right foot is invaluable in the enrollment process.”
What Changed for Community ISD
Instead of making families piece together information across maps, webpages, and phone calls, Explore gives them a dependable place to begin, and Community ISD turned one of enrollment’s earliest questions into a faster, easier experience.
Explore now answers three important questions in one experience:
- Is my home within Community ISD?
- Which campus serves my child?
- What can I learn about that school before enrolling?
For a fast-growing district with complicated boundaries, that clarity began a more confident enrollment experience and helped families find where they belong faster. As Cooper put it, “Starting off on the right foot is invaluable in the enrollment process.” For Community ISD, that better start now takes only an address.
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