Baltimore City Public Schools serves nearly 77,000 students across the city. But, despite their size, Baltimore City Public Schools boasts an impressive connection with their community. According to a family survey, 82% of respondents indicated that they “were mostly or extremely satisfied with their school.”

What we love about this school website:

Baltimore City Public Schools’ website epitomizes the sometimes hard-to-strike balance between personalization and cohesion. Every single school in the district has its own unique website, but every website utilizes similar features, elements and organizational components—thus ensuring a consistent user experience across the board. For parents with children in different schools, that’s extremely helpful. It also smooths the transition from one school to the next as a child matriculates. We also love how Baltimore City Public Schools is using their website to amplify positive classroom stories and elevate the successes of real students.

El Paso ISD (EPISD) is the 12th largest district in Texas, with nearly 50,000 students enrolled across 75 campuses. It also has an interesting history. Organized in 1883, EPISD was home to the first-ever public kindergarten class in Texas.

What we love about this school website:

There’s a lot to love about EPISD’s website—from their user-friendly homepage buttons to their use of side menus to improve site navigation. One of our favorite things, though, may be how well EPISD has leveraged their homepage to highlight who they are as a district.

Directly on the homepage, EPISD advertises their 40+ high school programs, the 190 million dollars in scholarships awarded to EPISD students, and a direct link to their detailed “About Us” page where you can read more about the district’s storied past, see its federal report card and make a FOIA request, among other things. What’s more, they follow all that up with a clear call to action: Enroll now.

Socorro ISD is an urban school district in Texas that serves approximately 47,000 students. Their district has 51 school campuses that sport state-of-the-art facilities. They’re especially proud of their dual language academy, leading comprehensive special education programs and 91.1% graduation rate.

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One of the first things you might notice about Socorro ISD’s website is its bold and dynamic design. Students are front and center on the homepage, which is replete with a self-scrolling Student Spotlight section that, with just one click, will take you straight to a collection of stories about Socorro seniors.

And we’d be remiss not to mention Socorro’s “Seize Your Opportunity” landing page, linked directly from the “About Us” section on their homepage. Here, users can watch a short video that provides a lively overview of the district from the perspective of a student. As users scroll to the bottom of the page, they can find out more about specific programs and opportunities or jump directly to the district’s enrollment page.

Spokane Public Schools (SPS) is home to 29,000 students who speak over 70 different languages. In 2024, SPS was granted membership in the League of Innovative Schools and honored as one of six school districts in the country as a 2024 “District of Distinction" by District Administration Leadership Institute.

What we love about this school website:

The SPS website is remarkably user friendly because it makes high-priority information easy to find. Visitors can either navigate directly to the district’s main menu or click on one of the handy homepage buttons that link to categories like meal information, busing and registration.

We especially love SPS’ careers page (also linked directly from the home page), replete with more handy buttons that quickly connect prospective hires to relevant information, as well as a series of videos that give visitors an idea of what a career at SPS might look like.

Ceres Unified School District is located in a part of California known for its rich agricultural heritage. The diverse district operates across 20 neighborhood schools, including two comprehensive high schools, two dual language academies, a leadership magnet school and a K-12 charter school.

What we love about this school website:

There is one page in particular that we want to highlight on Ceres Unified’s website. It is housed under the communications section of the site and titled “Celebrating Black History Month.” On the right side of the page, users can scroll to see videos created over the years of students sharing their thoughts on what Black History Month means to them.

Also included on the page are additional resources for users to learn more as well as a “Reflection of the Week” section. Each week, this section is updated with a new question related to Black History Month. Under the question is a user-friendly button visitors can click to submit their response to the reflection question. This communications webpage doesn’t just say it values student voice and authentic conversation—it creates a space for those conversations to happen.

Edison Township Public Schools (ETPS) is the fifth largest school district in New Jersey. The district’s mission is to “create a safe, supportive, learning environment that empowers every student to actively contribute to a dynamic, interconnected global society.”

What we love about this school website:

The first thing we want to call out about ETPS’s sleek and dynamic website is the ETPS chatbot, powered by AlwaysOn. Users can access the ETPS chatbot at any time simply by clicking the icon located at the bottom right corner of every page. There, users can get answers to questions like, “What’s for lunch this week?” without ever leaving the homepage.

If you scroll down ETPS’s homepage you’ll see another element we love: their “Programs and Services” section. In the age of school choice, advertising what your school does well is more important than ever—but it’s not enough to simply tell families what your district offers. First, you have to get their attention. And that’s exactly what ETPS’ website does with this section that is both eye-catching and informative.

Located in Gillett, Wisconsin, Cooperative Educational Service Agency 8 provides services to 27 different school districts in the state. CESA 8 is a “relationship-driven” organization that values “stewardship,” “advocacy,” “vision” and “collaboration."

What we love about this school website:

One of the first things that stands out to us about CESA 8’s website is the “District Profiles” section that has been leveraged as a kind of video gallery. Here, users can watch short videos highlighting the great work happening in the districts CESA 8 serves.

Also, given that CESA 8 offers so many professional development opportunities, we love their clean, user-friendly Events section that allows visitors to both peruse upcoming events, quickly connect to additional information through native links and even add events to their calendars if they so choose.

Saginaw ISD (Michigan) provides services to 12 local school districts in Saginaw County, as well as five public school academies and 22 non-public schools. They summarize their mission with three key values: serve, innovate and empower. All three of those values are embodied across Saginaw ISD’s entire website, from the peppy and professional video overview on their homepage to their perfectly consistent branding.

What we love about this school website:

There’s so much to love about Saginaw ISD’s website, but there’s one page in particular that showcases school communications and marketing at its best.

Saginaw ISD’s “Brunkow Preschool Fire Updates” page is not flashy or extravagant in its layout. Rather, it caught our attention because it’s an example of what a school district’s brand can—and should—mean beyond simple design elements.

After suffering a fire at a local preschool, consistent updates were posted on this landing page beginning the very next day. By providing updates on their website, Saginaw ISD ensured their community had access to trusted information all in one place. If Saginaw ISD says their values are to serve, innovate and empower—then that’s exactly what they’ve done here. That’s what a brand looks like in action.

As you’re thinking about whether your website offers a great user experience and has the best design possible—also ask whether it’s helping you build the kinds of relationships and reputation you hope to have with and in your community. The best websites are those that are not only clean and navigable, but those that put your brand at the forefront and make everyone in your community a better communicator.