The school website is a mess. That is the honest truth. Schools for the most part do a poor job with their websites but ACS is pitiful. I don’t say that to demean the school district, heck they hired me so they must be doing something right. :) Just kidding, I’m not that conceded.
The current site was built on IIS using FrontPage extensions. The code is atrocious and updating the site gives me headaches. Fixing the code is a lost cause since the site needs to be updated and redesigned. I have looked around some of the open source content management systems and all have something to offer. Drupal comes the closest and they even have a school district based template that could work. Plone also has a school template that was designed for a school district and then the designers were advised to release it open source by the school district. That is just plain cool.
The need for a CMS lies in the fact that everything I do, I do with the thought that anyone could step in and take over for me if needed. That is not exactly the way to job security but it is the right thing to do. A CMS also helps me delegate updating the site. For those that don’t know a CMS is a website that has a control panel for updating content.
In the end, none of the current open source content managment systems fit my need for modularity. No doubt they can be customized but that requires knowing the code a lot better. This has led me to a really good book by Kevin Yank titled “Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP and MySQL.“ I browsed the book and found that it had a section on building a CMS. This interested me enough to take a deeper look and what I have found is a gem. The book is for the intermediate to advanced web designer that is ready to take the plunge. Those aware of my design exploits know that I design using CSS and PHP. PHP is used mainly for the PHP include command that makes it a lot easier to keep content organized on a site. Other than playing with some config files that have used the PHP mysql_connect command my experience with PHP is limited. The book systematically teaches you what you need to know to make the two work together. The small tutorial on building a joke database is a blast because right away you get to see results of your work which builds confidence. I’m moving on to the building a content management system section which I am hoping with either shed some light on customizing a current CMS or if building a custom system is the way to go.
Either way, I am learning a lot and I like that. I am getting really excited about the new ACS site and will keep all three of you updated on the progress. 
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