St. Joseph Marquette Catholic School: From an Outdated WordPress Site to a Scalable, Accessible Webflow Build

Project overview

St. Joseph Marquette Catholic School has served Yakima Valley families since 1875. After more than ten years on the same WordPress website, the school had outgrown it. The site was slow to update, hard to navigate, thin on content, and completely inaccessible. Graceful Web Studio rebuilt it on Webflow as our largest project to date: more than 35 designed pages, over 60 counting template pages, and 15 interconnected CMS collections, all built to WCAG 2.2 Level AA and handed off to the school's own staff to manage. This is the story of how a 150-year-old school got a website that finally reflects everything it offers.

How St. Joseph Marquette found Graceful Web Studio

The introduction came through my BNI network. A fellow member referred the school to me, and I met with Marlo, who was helping St. Joseph Marquette find someone who would be the right fit to rebuild their aging website. The school knew what it wanted: a partner who understood both the technical side and the heart of a Catholic school community. After that first conversation, it was clear this was a project I wanted to take on.

The challenge: a website the school had outgrown

The existing WordPress site had served its purpose for more than a decade, but it had reached its limits in nearly every way that mattered.

Updating it was a weekly burden. The office manager, Sarah, spent hours each week keeping the Wednesday newsletter, events, and announcements current, and the forms were a nightmare to maintain. Every change meant working through a bloated WordPress backend.

The site also was not bringing in leads. St. Joseph Marquette has a great deal to offer prospective families, but the website did not reflect who the school is or what makes it special. Most pages were text only, and not much text at that.

What the initial evaluation found

When I evaluated the site, the problems ran deeper than the surface. Only about a third of the pages were actually indexing in search, because the content was so thin. Just two pages on the entire website, the home page and the About, Mission and History page, had any images at all. The design was dated and flat, and years on WordPress had left an enormous amount of leftover content and bloat behind the scenes.

On top of all of that, the old website was not accessible. No accessibility had been built into it, which meant families using screen readers or other assistive technology were effectively shut out.

Discovery and a realistic plan

I worked up an estimate and did my best to keep it reasonable, because I knew the school was working within a budget. The scope was significant: more than 35 individual pages, including the CMS collection template pages, all needing to be woven together into a user flow that worked for two very different audiences. Prospective parents needed a clear path through admissions and academics. Current parents needed quick access to parent info and academics, plus the events and announcements that keep a school community connected.

The build: a complex, interconnected CMS architecture

The heart of this project is its content architecture. I built 15 CMS collections and wove them together so the entire site stays connected and current from a handful of update points.

Those collections cover everything a busy school needs to publish: events, announcements, the Wednesday Letter, staff, curriculum guides, grades, enrichment, student life, activities and clubs, testimonials, the parent board and school commission, mission and history documents, job listings, policies, and a large documents and forms library.

One place to manage every form

The documents and forms collection is a good example of the payoff. Instead of updating forms in a dozen places, Sarah now updates them in one collection, and they update dynamically everywhere they appear across the site. What used to be a nightmare is now a single, simple task.

Reusable components and template pages

I built the site with reusable components and CMS template pages so the design stays consistent and the school can add new events, staff members, forms, or announcements without touching the layout. Add an item to a collection, and a fully designed, on-brand page builds itself.

Breadcrumbs and schema for search

On interior and template pages, I added breadcrumbs where appropriate so visitors always know where they are and can move back up easily. I also added structured data (schema) to help both search engines and answer engines understand the content, which supports search engine optimization and answer engine optimization together.

A reliable, accessible contact form

The site includes a well-built contact form with accessible error validation, so every visitor, including those using assistive technology, gets clear, usable feedback when something needs attention. Contact information is also placed throughout the site, so families are never more than a glance away from reaching the school.

Search and Spanish access

To make the larger site easy to use, I added a search feature so families can find what they need quickly. I also added a Spanish language option through Google Translate, widening access for the school's Spanish-speaking families.

Real photography that brought the school to life

A school is about its people, and the old site barely showed any. To fix that, I introduced the school to Nicholas Shipley at Valhalla Creative, who was recommended for the photography. I worked with Nicholas directly to put together a shot list, he went on site and captured the imagery, and delivered it to me. I then cropped and optimized every photo for the web. The result is a site full of real students, real teachers, and real staff in action, and it completely changed how the school feels online.

Admissions pages built to win over prospective families

The admissions section is the part I am especially proud of. It gives prospective parents everything they need, clearly laid out: why a Catholic school, how to enroll, tuition, fees and financial assistance, how to schedule a tour, and how to visit us. These pages do the quiet work of turning an interested parent into an enrolled family, and they were designed with exactly that journey in mind.

Accessibility built in from the ground up

This is the piece I care about most. The previous website had no accessibility built into it at all. The new one was built with the goal of WCAG 2.2 Level AA conformance from the very first page.

That meant semantic HTML, a clear and logical heading structure, sufficient color contrast, descriptive text alternatives on every image, accessible forms, and respect for visitors who prefer reduced motion. I tested the site with the NVDA screen reader on multiple devices, across desktops, laptops, Android phones, and iPhones, and in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Accessibility on this site is not an afterthought or an add-on. It is part of how the site was built.

Search engine and answer engine optimization

The old site had only about a third of its pages indexing, because the content was so thin. The rebuild addressed that at the root: real content on every page, a clear structure, descriptive headings and alt text, breadcrumbs, and schema markup. Together these give search engines and AI answer engines a site they can actually read, understand, and surface when a Yakima Valley family searches for a school.

Training and a clean handoff

The school chose not to take on ongoing maintenance, so everything I built had to be something the internal team could confidently manage on their own. I designed every collection and template page for a clean handoff, then delivered a couple of hours of recorded live training. Sarah and the office team can now update the newsletter, events, announcements, staff, and forms themselves, in a fraction of the time the old site demanded.

The result

St. Joseph Marquette now has a website that finally matches the school itself: warm, credible, and full of life. It is fast, accessible, easy to manage, and built to grow. Prospective families see real students and staff, clear admissions pathways, and a school with 150 years of tradition and a great deal to offer. Current families get the events, announcements, and forms they need without friction. And the team that runs the school got hours of their week back.

What St. Joseph Marquette is saying

Crystal took what was a very large and complex project and guided us through every step with professionalism, creativity, and incredible attention to detail. What impressed me most was her ability to take thousands of pieces of content, photos, and ideas and transform them into a beautiful, modern website that truly reflects the heart of our school. The new site is not only visually stunning, but it's intuitive, engaging, and designed with prospective families in mind. Every page feels purposeful, and the overall user experience is a tremendous improvement.

Marlo McCrea, St. Joseph Marquette Catholic School

Why this project matters

This is the largest and most intricate site Graceful Web Studio has built, and it is a clear example of what we do best: accessible, high-performing Webflow websites with the CMS architecture to back them up. See it for yourself at the live St. Joseph Marquette Catholic School website. If your school, parish, or organization has outgrown a website that is hard to update and does not reflect who you are, this same careful process is exactly how we would help. You can request a free project quote to start the conversation.

Crystal Scott, CPWA Certified Webflow Expert, Certified Professional in Web Accessibility, and founder of Graceful Web Studio.