Westwood Public Schools Powering Up an Updated Website

Thanks to Westwood Public Schools for contributing this news to Westwood Minute.

The current Westwood Public Schools (WPS) website debuted about 12 years ago. And while WPS Director of Technology, Learning and Innovation Steve Ouellette says the website has served the district well, it doesn’t have the accessibility features necessary today or the tools available in many newer K-12 website platforms.

Ouellette led a committee tasked with finding a new website provider. The group, which consists of WPS staff members, selected Apptegy from a group of three finalists. Apptegy is an Arkansas-based company which specializes in creating K-12 websites for school districts across the country. Ouellette says he reached out to counterparts in districts across the state and their name kept coming up.

“As we dug into it, the new site has features that are superior to what we have,” said Ouellette. “We are talking about things like language translation. People who are sight impaired can access content using assistive technology tools. If they hover over an image, it reads the alt text associated with it.”

The new website also has a mass communication component which will send out emails, texts and live-feed messages to families. This will replace a separate system the district has previously used.

“Apptegy also has a custom, built-in app. When parents download the app, they will be able to configure it to essentially pin the school their kids go to,” said Ouellette. “This will send alerts to the app, so it blends the website with our daily or weekly communications. We want to make it easy for parents. They’re our biggest customers.”

The site also syncs with the district’s social media accounts. Messages or alerts can go to the website, the app and social media platforms simultaneously, streamlining the process for WPS staff.

“We believe the new website will be easier for our families to navigate, and the app will allow them to have all the information they need right at their fingertips,” said Executive Assistant to the Superintendent Alyssa Provazza, a member of the website committee. “There are dedicated buttons for items we know parents frequently use, like the school calendar, payments and athletics.”

The new website is set to launch on August 17, 2026, and WPS families will be receiving notifications along with information on downloading the app and signing in.

“This project has been a heavy lift, but it’s been a lot of fun,” said Ouellette. “I’m looking forward to releasing it, and I can’t say enough about the team behind the work.”