Featured App: Penn Manor School District
The Penn Manor School District app is the “official app for the Penn Manor School District in Lancaster, PA.” From a single home screen of large buttons, families can check alerts, athletics, the calendar, district news, school menus and more. It is built with AppPresser on top of the district’s WordPress website.
In this featured app spotlight, we take a closer look at the team behind Penn Manor School District, what the app does, who it serves, and why it is such a strong example of what happens when a WordPress site and a mobile app work together.
Who Is Behind Penn Manor School District
Penn Manor School District is one of the largest school districts in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with an average student population of about 5,550. It spans 113 rural square miles east of the Susquehanna River and takes in five municipalities: Millersville Borough and Conestoga, Martic, Manor and Pequea townships. Students attend seven elementary schools, two middle schools and Penn Manor High School, which sits next to the campus of Millersville University. The district says it is “known for our emphasis on technology in the classroom, student collaboration, agricultural education and technical and career training,” and its philosophy is simple: “everything we do should enhance our community, one student at a time.”
Technology is a big part of Penn Manor’s story. In January 2014, every Penn Manor High School student received a laptop running open source software exclusively, and the program later expanded to the middle schools and to grades 5 and 6. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, and Red Hat both featured the district’s open source work, and in 2016 Penn Manor received an Award of Distinction from District Administration magazine. Open source tools such as Moodle, Koha and WordPress remain essential to district infrastructure.
Dr. Phil Gale has served as Superintendent since July 1, 2022, after a long career at Penn Manor that included ten years as principal of the high school. Chief Information Officer Charlie Reisinger, a Penn Manor graduate who has led the district’s technology programs since 1999, chronicled the laptop initiative and the district’s student IT apprenticeship program in his book, The Open Schoolhouse. The district is online at pennmanor.net.
What the Penn Manor School District App Does
The Penn Manor app brings the most useful parts of the district website together on one screen. Ten large buttons cover everything from urgent alerts to lunch menus, and the content comes straight from the district’s WordPress site, so updates posted by staff appear in the app right away.
Here are the main areas the app covers:
- Alerts, for closings, delays and other time sensitive messages from the district.
- Athletics, with information on Penn Manor sports.
- Calendar, showing school board meetings, in service days, events and other key dates.
- Contacts, for reaching district offices and schools.
- District News, the latest stories and announcements from across Penn Manor.
- Employment, with current job openings in the district.
- Menus, so families can see what is being served at school.
- Schools, with information on each elementary school, the two middle schools and the high school.
- School Board, for board information and meetings.
- Speed Dial, quick phone access to the numbers families call most.
What makes the Penn Manor app distinctive is how practical it is. A parent can check whether there is a delay, look up a lunch menu, find a school’s phone number and read the latest district news in a few taps, without searching through a large website. For a district that has long put technology to work for students, the app extends the same thinking to families.
App Screenshots
Here is a look at the app. Use the arrows or the numbered buttons to move through the screenshots.
Test Drive the App
The best way to understand the Penn Manor app is to try it. Download it on Android, open District News for the latest stories, then tap Calendar to see what is coming up.
Key Features That Stand Out
Everything on One Screen
The home screen is a grid of ten navy blue buttons: Alerts, Athletics, Calendar, Contacts, District News, Employment, Menus, Schools, School Board and Speed Dial. Each button opens a focused part of the district website inside the app. It means the information families need most is never more than one tap away.
District News
District News shares stories from across Penn Manor in a scrolling list of cards, each with a photo, a headline and a short summary. In the screenshots, readers can see stories like student athletes returning to practice fields with new safeguards and an update from the superintendent on plans for the school year. A search button at the top makes it easy to find an older story.
At a Glance
- The official app for Penn Manor School District in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
- Serves a district of about 5,550 students across ten schools and five municipalities.
- Alerts, Athletics, Calendar, District News, Menus, Schools and more on one home screen.
- Speed Dial and Contacts for quick calls to schools and offices.
- Available on Android, with more than 1,000 installs on Google Play.
- Powered by the district’s WordPress site through AppPresser.
Who Penn Manor School District Serves
The Penn Manor app is built first for parents and guardians. With students spread across ten buildings and 113 square miles, families need a reliable way to hear about delays, events and school news, and the app puts those updates in their pocket.
It also serves students and staff. Students can check athletics and the calendar, and employees and job seekers can find openings, contacts and school board information without hunting through the website.
Finally, it serves the wider community in Millersville and the surrounding townships. Residents who want to follow district news, attend a school board meeting or cheer on a Penn Manor team can find what they need in the same simple app.
Technology Behind the App
The Penn Manor app is powered by the district’s own WordPress site, pennmanor.net.
The app is built from WordPress, and WordPress drives it. News, alerts and calendars live on the WordPress site, and AppPresser carries that content straight into the app, so updates made on the site show up in the app without a separate system to manage.
Looking at the site itself, these are the platforms behind the experience:
WordPress, the foundation for the district’s website. WordPress is the open source content management system that powers more websites than any other platform.
The Events Calendar and Events Calendar Pro, for school calendars. The Events Calendar is a widely used WordPress events plugin.
CoBlocks, for page building. CoBlocks adds blocks to the WordPress editor.
GTranslate, for translation. GTranslate is a WordPress translation plugin.
AppPresser, which turns the WordPress site into the mobile app. AppPresser is a mobile app builder that creates native iOS and Android apps from a WordPress site.
What Penn Manor School District Shows About AppPresser
Penn Manor School District runs its website on WordPress, a fitting choice for a district that relies on open source software across its infrastructure. The app shows how AppPresser can take a large district website and turn it into a simple mobile tool that families will actually use.
It also shows how WordPress plugins carry into an app. The district calendar, powered by The Events Calendar, shows up in the app alongside news and alerts, so staff keep managing content in one place while families see it on their phones.
And it shows that a school app does not need to be complicated. A clear grid of buttons, each pointing to something parents look for every week, is often the most helpful design of all, and AppPresser makes that easy to build.
Congratulations to Dr. Phil Gale, Charlie Reisinger and the Penn Manor School District team on building an app that keeps Penn Manor families connected. We are proud to have AppPresser behind it.
Do You Want Your Own App?
If your organization already runs on WordPress, launching your app with AppPresser is simple. Your app pulls directly from the website you already manage, so every update you make to your site appears in your app automatically. Ready to get started on your app right now? Check out our pricing page.
Not on WordPress yet? AppPresser can still help. Our team can move your website onto WordPress and then set up your app, so everything works together from the start. And if you need something more tailored, from custom features to a completely custom app, our custom development services have you covered.
If you need help or have any questions, tell us about your organization and what you’d like your app to do, and we’ll get back to you with a clear answer on costs and next steps.
