How can the school improve its website with Apptegy?

In my last post about the school website, I gave some critique to the new school website. Of course, they can improve it by coming up with a whole new website, but they are already using Apptegy, so how can they use Apptegy to improve the website?

I took a look at some of the cookie cutter Apptegy websites to see what other designs Apptegy has for their websites. The results were unsurprising, as all of the websites pretty much have the same design. So much for schools having their own identity. One of the websites I looked at, for Sheldon Schools in Iowa, seems to be pretty much the exact same as ours, but with a much better menu.

This means that it's perfectly possible to have the good kind of menu in an Apptegy website. But what if I was on mobile how would it show up?

It just goes back to the hamburger menu, which is fine for mobile users. 

For my other complaints about not having the links on the school pages, it would be easier solved with the newer menu because the links would be right at the top. I also did not see any of their websites with a real calendar instead of the upcoming events list. Sad!

The App

I'd like to give my thoughts on the app. It's a fine app, but it doesn't really give me anything that the mobile website doesn't have. In fact, sticking a webview of the school's website into an app would be almost no different. The only thing the app has is push notifications (which on android require the permission to make and receive phone calls??), but it is again redundant because the school sends out SMS alerts.

New Phone System

I also want to say one thing about the new phone system. Why can't they use the school's phone number? At least a local area code? I saw the phone number and didn't answer it because it was from a number I didn't know (and it was out of area). I'd imagine people with landlines are extremely likely to ignore the call because it is an out of area phone number, and no built in caller ID. (The old number showed SCHOOLS on landline caller ids) 

Management

Since they have a centralized place to send out communications, is there a centralized place where I can choose what phone number and email to receive calls, texts, and emails without going through the front office?