Website maintenance for charter schools

We built the websites for Gateway STEM Academy in St. Paul and Midway Star Academy, both Minnesota charters, and the question that came up in month two was the same both times: who keeps this current? A care plan is our answer. One person at TayoPro owns the website calendar for the year, posts what the office sends, patches the software every week, and checks the pages a state reviewer or a parent will actually read. The site stays right without the office carrying it.

What goes stale first

• 01The board page falls behind the 30-day ruleA Minnesota charter board is a public body, and Minn. Stat. 124E.07 requires its minutes to be posted on the school website within 30 days of approval and kept there for a year. It is the easiest thing to skip in a week with a staffing hole and a bus problem, and three missed months becomes a question from the authorizer. We post what the board clerk sends, the same week, in the same place every time.
• 02Enrollment pages describe last yearThe lottery policy has to be published on the site under 124E.11. The application window, the lottery date, seats open by grade, and the waitlist are four facts a family checks in January, and four facts that change every year. Most charter sites update them once, in a rush, in December. We put the dates in the day the board approves them and change the seat counts whenever the office does.
• 03The 5:40 a.m. closureThe alert bar has to be flippable from a phone by whoever is awake, and it has to match the ParentSquare or Remind message word for word. We train two people on that one task, test it in October before anyone needs it, and keep the rest of the site from getting in their way.
• 04Accessibility drifts after launchA site can meet WCAG 2.1 AA on launch day and fail by November: a PDF uploaded without tags, a staff photo without alt text, a slideshow plugin someone installed. Public schools fall under the federal ADA Title II web rule, with compliance dates now set for April 2027 and April 2028 depending on population, which makes this a standing obligation rather than a one-time audit. We check every new page and document each quarter.

The year on the website

This is the calendar we keep for a charter school site on a care plan. Your dates go in during onboarding; the work happens without anyone on your staff having to remember it.

1. AugustSchool calendar, bell schedule, supply lists, bus routes, and staff directory posted; the meals policy and the e-learning plan notice go up for the year; closure procedure rehearsed with the office.
2. SeptemberBoard meeting schedule for the year, the handbook, the Report Card link once MDE publishes it, and the standing notices families and the state expect to find: non-discrimination, Title IX contact, data practices.
3. OctoberThe standardized testing calendar is due on the site by October 1 under 120B.306. Open enrollment and tour dates go up; the first snow-day banner gets tested; the annual report starts taking shape.
4. November – DecemberThe board-approved annual report is posted when it is adopted; the audit goes to MDE and the authorizer by December 31; next year's application window and lottery rules are published.
5. January – MarchApplications open, the lottery date and process stay posted, seats and waitlists change weekly, board election notices go up 30 days ahead, and closure alerts run on whatever morning the weather decides.
6. April – MayLottery results and waitlist status, MCA testing windows, re-enrollment for current families, spring events, and graduation details. The Title II accessibility date lands on April 26, 2027 for larger entities.
7. June – JulyThe literacy plan is due on the site by June 15 under 120B.12. Staff changes, summer programs, the revised handbook, old PDFs archived, and a full accessibility and speed pass before August traffic arrives.

What we handle every month

• Board minutes posted within the statutory 30 days, in the same place every time, kept for a year
• Lottery policy, application window, and per-grade seat status updated as the office sets them
• Annual report, authorizer link, testing calendar, and literacy plan posted on their statutory dates
• One calendar, synced from the Google calendar your office already keeps
• Closure and e-learning banners: office staff trained to post from a phone, with us as backup
• Staff directory, handbook, bell schedule, and bus routes changed the week they change
• New PDFs checked for tags and headings, images for alt text, forms for keyboard use
• Weekly plugin and core updates, daily backups, uptime and SSL monitoring, form testing monthly