Basic Website Editing Refresher Course

Managing your school’s website might seem like a technical task—but it’s actually one of the most important ways you can support your families and strengthen your school community. That’s why we kicked off the 2025–26 Working Group series with a foundational session: Website & CMS 101.

Whether you're new to the Frogtummy CMS or just need a refresher, this training focuses on empowering school staff with the tools and confidence to manage website content with ease.

Key Terms, Simplified

We began with a breakdown of common website terms—CMS, widgets/blocks, icons, and quick links—so that everyone feels included in the conversation. Our goal? Help everyone feel comfortable navigating the Frogtummy platform, whether you’re editing every week or just occasionally jumping in.

The 'Family First' Focus

One of the most important takeaways? Put families first. Your website should serve two key groups:

• Current families who need quick, easy access to key info

• Potential families who are exploring your school and need to see what makes you special

Make sure your menus, quick links, and homepage design reflect that purpose. Keep content simple and clear—less is more!

Best Practices for Editing

We wrapped up with hands-on tips for editing in the Frogtummy CMS. Some favorites included:

• Open links in a new tab (especially external ones)

• Use general, non-date-specific language when possible

• Do a yearly “site audit” to check links, outdated info, and clarity

• Create a clean, focused layout that helps users find what they need quickly

What are 'Site Notices' and how do I use them?

A site notice is a notification that pops up the first time a user navigates to your site. Once they acknowledge the notification, it can remain visible by clicking a small icon found in the bottom right corner. This notification can be edited in many ways, including when and how it appears. You can create or edit a site notice from the Site Notices tab in the editing menu. Some reasons to use a site notice include:

• Summer office hours
• Snow day or other delayed start/remote learning day
• Website maintenance
• Any other time you need to alert everyone visiting your site about something

Would I use site notices for payment-related things, like the yearbook?

You can use a site notice for something like a link to pay for yearbooks that has a deadline. In this case, you can set the parameters for how long the notice is up. 

For any school using myPayment, there is an even better option. You can assign a fee, like a yearbook, to groups of students or all students. This will notify parents that they have a new fee assessed and can log in to their portal to pay it. You can also message parents by fee status, ie, assigned but not paid. So you could easily notify any parents who have been assigned the yearbook fee and haven't paid yet that time is running out to pay.

Can I edit widgets in a test environment?

When editing simple blocks/widgets, the edits are not saved until you hit save. 

When editing the blocks/widgets that require editing on the back end, the edits are happening live on your site. This is so you can view the edits. 

If you are working on something more complex and you want to test it before sharing on your site, we suggest creating a test page. You can then edit the widgets/blocks on that page until you like it. When you are ready, you can copy the widget and paste it on the page where you'd like it. 

You may want to password-protect the test page because Google may be able to find it even if it is not in your menus.

How do parents know about the portal and login?

All Frogtummy schools will have their header updated to show the word login so it is super obvious where they need to go to log in from the website. There is also a Frogtummy app that schools can use for parents to access the portal.

All parents automatically have an account created using their email from Aspire. Frogtummy has simple step-by-step instructions for parents to activate their accounts. From the parent portal, parents can access information based on which Frogtummy modules the school uses. See module-specific info below:

• myLottery - Parents can see lottery applications, statuses, and next steps towards enrollment.
• myInbox - Parents can see all messages sent by the school. Especially helpful for parents who aren't receiving emails for whatever reason, or who may need to revisit a link that was sent home previously.
• myAttendance - Parents can view attendance records by student, and excuse absences, mark absences as an error, etc.
• myCarpool - Parents have access to other parents wishing to set up a carpool. They can see other uses on a map to show distance from their own home and the school. Each user can mark what they are looking for, what they can provide to others, and decide what info to share with others.
• myPayment - Parents have access to view lunch balances by student and make payments, pay for school fees, access the school store, make donations, etc. They can see their payment history, including refunds.