Open Your Digital Doorway for Trust, Engagement and Impact: Transform Your Website with Design, Data and Generative AI

How districts can reimagine their websites as strategic communication hubs using AI, accessibility features and real-time engagement tools.

Is your district's website effectively serving as a strategic communication hub? By integrating accessibility features, generative AI, and real-time responsiveness, you can ensure every family has timely access to trustworthy information.

The Challenge: Misinformation & Fragmented Information

Edison Township Public Schools, one of New Jersey’s largest and most diverse districts, serves approximately 17,000 students and 2,300 employees, with over 56 home languages. Ensuring clear, consistent and accessible communication isn’t just a challenge, it’s an imperative.

When I became the Director of Communications and Policy in August 2023, I quickly identified a fundamental issue: Families often turned to alternative sources for information rather than the district’s website. Instead, they relied on WhatsApp groups, social media threads and word-of-mouth leading to misinformation, frustration and a fractured flow of communication.

If families are looking elsewhere, leaders must ask why and take action.

That’s where the initial work began.

Step 1: Don’t Guess: Ask, Listen, Analyze - Then Build

Instead of assuming, we took a data-driven approach:

• Historical Analytics: Assessed search trends and content gaps.
• Generative AI Surveys: Gathered insights from internal and external stakeholders through multiple mediums.
• In-Person Focus Groups: Conducted discussions to understand barriers.

As one parent told me, “I stopped checking the website because it never has what I need. It's easier to ask in a group chat.”

The issue wasn’t just about website functionality, it was about loss of trust in the platform itself.

Step 2: Building from the Ground Up: A Decision to Start Fresh

Rather than migrating outdated content, I made the deliberate decision to start fresh. Although a heavy lift, this ensured accuracy, accessibility, alignment and credibility - key areas identified through stakeholder feedback.

With my foundation as an instructional leader and a believer in the “why,” I took a strategic approach through a backward design model:

• Focus on the desired outcomes, not the vendor.
• Start with the district’s “why.”
• Understand the audience.
• Implement best practices.
• Measure progress, monitor, and adjust.

Step 3: Building Sustainability: Training & Empowering

A redesign is only as strong as its sustainability. A launch means nothing if content isn’t maintained. I knew that to ensure long-term success as a one person communications department, I needed a team to build buy-in and systems.

This included:

• Training each building’s administrative teams and Cabinet.
• Establishing a network of school-based webmasters and ongoing support systems.
• Creating districtwide website management standards.
• Streamlining messaging with embedded feeds and a mobile app for unification and real-time updates.

Step 4: Analytics Insights and Generative AI

After rebuilding and decentralizing website management, it was time to assess the impact.

Key Metrics (First 5 Months Post-Launch: September 2024–January 2025)

• 4 million events recorded
• 255,000 unique users

Pre-Launch Data (January 1, 2024–September 2024)

• 4.5 million events
• 270,000 unique users

Despite some advocacy for a mobile-first approach, we maintained a comprehensive digital strategy, launching a district app while ensuring a robust, multi-platform experience. Launch data validates this approach:

• 53% of users access via desktop.
• 47% use mobile or tablets.

Step 5: Personalization and Generative AI

Yet, the true power of engagement and trust is grounded in personalization. Seeing its potential, I led the launch of generative AI chatbots, transforming information access beyond a traditional search tool and curating content to meet community needs.

The Results (First 5 Months):

• 7,819 chatbot engagements
• 10,920 user-submitted questions
• Reduced administrative workload by automating repetitive inquiries
• Identified parent concerns → real-time content updates
• Enhanced multilingual support (queries in native languages differing from SIS home language data)

Step 6: Expanding AI Beyond Engagement

Generative AI isn’t just about engagement, it’s about operational efficiency.

We are now leveraging innovation with:

• AI DocBots for curated policies, HR materials, and essential documents, improving accessibility and efficiency.
• AI-Driven Surveys & Real-Time Sentiment Measurement to create a continuous feedback loop that informs ongoing improvements.

These tools are catalysts for transformation, reshaping how we personalize, engage, inform and serve our community.

Key Takeaways

• Your website is a living communication strategy.
• Design backward from your district’s “why.”
• Empower teams with training & sustainable management.
• Leverage innovation for engagement and continuous improvement.

Take Action: Elevate Your Website into an Engagement Powerhouse

Your website is a strategic cornerstone in your broader communication landscape.

Districts that harness:

• Data
• Generative AI
• User-Centered Communication Design

. . . will strengthen connections with their communities through reliability and responsiveness.

Is your digital doorway open, accessible, and engaging? Embrace innovation for a more connected and engaged community.

This post is the first is a series titled Transforming District Engagement: Strategy, Connection, Innovation, and the Power of Generative AI. The series explores how district leaders can rethink their communication strategies through curated generative AI, innovative strategic planning, and data-driven decision-making. Posts will provide practical insights on leveraging AI-powered engagement, real-time strategic planning, and sustainable feedback loops to enhance transparency and responsiveness.