Video guides

Hi, I'm Jill, Ethan's mom. Welcome! This little web app is something I built and gave to the school.

Last year I kept missing important things buried in all the different message streams, and more than once I forgot to pay tuition on time. When I mentioned it to Kelly, she said every parent has their own favorite way of hearing from the school, so getting the key news to everyone is genuinely hard.

Around the same time, I noticed the school was collecting tuition through PayPal. Ethan's dad and I both come from the tech world — he worked on payments early on (you probably know Square), and I've built all kinds of platform products. We could both tell right away that the fees were adding up.

So I started building a small platform for the school in my spare time. As a parent, here's what I wanted:

• Messages that reach me the way I like — different kinds, different levels of importance, each through the channel I actually use.
• Key details that are easy to find again — times, places, what to pack.
• Lower payment fees for the school. I helped Kelly connect directly to a secure online payment service (Stripe), so families can pay by bank transfer (ACH). Apart from paper checks, if the families who pay online switched to bank transfer, the school could save one to two thousand dollars a year in fees. You'll find it under Tuition in the app.

Along the way I added a few other everyday things: homework and reminders from the teacher, a space for parents to set up get-togethers for the kids, photo albums organized by activity, and the school calendar. Use whichever parts are helpful to you.

There's nothing to download — it opens right in your browser. If you use it often, tap your browser's Share button and choose Add to Home Screen, and it'll sit on your phone just like any other app.

I've built software for years, but making something like this is still new to me. So please tell me what could be better, or anything that worries you — I'll keep improving it. Text or call me anytime; you already have my number.

Thank you, and I hope it makes your week a little easier.

— Jill