Put the dates every family needs on the school calendar. Each group keeps its own calendar on its own page, and parents subscribe to the ones they follow.
The central hub for Lincoln High clubs, teams, and parent organizations. All your campus activities in one place.
Doors at 7 PM, semi-formal attire.
Each group posts its own events on its own page, and the school calendar holds the dates every family needs. A parent who only cares about band subscribes to the band page.
When a date or location changes, leaders update one entry and the page shows the change within a few minutes. That reduces conflict between flyers, social posts, and stale PDFs.
For planning workflows, pair this with the School Event Planning Checklist so teams can standardize their lead times and deadlines.
Picture day, open house and testing windows go on the school calendar. Band rehearsals and library volunteer blocks go on those groups' pages, each with its own Subscribe button.
A virtual PTO meeting, a game against a rival school, a field trip that needs a signed form back: give the event its own link and a join button sits right on the entry. Nobody hunts a three week old email thread for the Zoom link the night before the meeting.
Event notes take bold text and a short list now, so a bus schedule with three stop times reads as three lines instead of one sentence parents have to reread.
Attach the permission slip or the field trip flyer to the event itself. One file, right where the date already lives, so it travels with the event instead of sitting in an inbox somewhere.
The fall carnival needs more than a spot on the calendar. It needs to show up in the class group chat and on the PTO Instagram, and nobody on the board has a free evening to design a flyer. Tap the share icon on the event and SchoolRelay draws one: your logo and school name, the title, the date and time, the location, and a QR code. Pick Post or Story size. On your phone it opens the share sheet, so it goes to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messages from there. On most computers it downloads as a PNG.
The QR code and the Copy link button both open your school page with that event's details already up, so a parent does not scroll past picture day looking for it. Paste the link into WhatsApp, iMessage or Facebook and the preview shows the carnival's name, date and place instead of your school's home page.
The image has a small Made with SchoolRelay line at the bottom. On Pro you can switch it off. A draft cannot be shared until you publish it, because the QR code would send parents to an event they cannot open.
Most parents will not open the school page every week. Once your calendar has an upcoming event, a Subscribe button sits next to the calendar heading on your school page. A parent taps it, picks Apple Calendar on an iPhone, iPad or Mac, Google Calendar, or Outlook, and every school date lands next to soccer practice and the dentist. Using some other calendar app? Tap Copy calendar link and paste it in. Parents do not make a SchoolRelay account or install anything.
Add the spring concert or move the bake sale to Friday and every subscribed calendar picks it up the next time it checks. Apple and Outlook check on their own schedules, and Google can take a few hours, so a rain cancellation at 7am still needs an announcement. Picture day saved without a time shows as all day. A three day book fair keeps all three days. Once an event's day is over it disappears from parents' calendars.
A group page has its own Subscribe button with just that group's events, so the band parents can follow rehearsals without every school date coming along.
Frequent changes are exactly why a centralized calendar helps. Instead of re-sending corrected details in multiple channels, publish once and direct families to the live calendar link where the latest status is always visible.
Can families add events to their own calendars?
Yes, the whole calendar at once. Tap Subscribe on the school calendar and pick Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook, or copy the link into any other calendar app. Each event still has its own Add to Google Calendar button.
If we move an event, does it change on parents' calendars?
For parents who subscribed, yes. Their calendar app picks up the change the next time it checks, and Google Calendar can take a few hours. A single event added with the Add to Google Calendar button is a copy, so it keeps the old date.
Who controls final event quality?
A school admin can edit every event. Each group admin you invite posts and edits that group's own events.
Can we show both school and PTO events?
Yes. Post the school's dates and the PTO's dates on the same page, and parents check one calendar.
Will this reduce parent questions?
Most schools see fewer "what time is it?" repeats once they consistently share a single calendar link.
Can an event link out to a meeting or a form?
Yes. Add a link and it shows as a button on the event, next to the date and location.
Can we attach a flyer to an event?
Yes, one file per event: a permission slip, a map, whatever the family needs before they show up.
How do I share one school event on social media?
Tap the share icon on the event. SchoolRelay draws a Post or Story image with your logo, the date, time and location, and a QR code that opens that event on your school page. On a phone it opens the share sheet; on most computers it downloads as a PNG.
Can one event run over several days?
Yes. Give the book fair an end date and it shows as one entry with the whole run, Oct 17 to Oct 19, instead of three copies. Subscribed calendars and Add to Google Calendar both keep the end date. You can also put volunteer shifts on different days of the same event.
Start by defining calendar ownership. Most Schools assign one operations lead who sets naming rules and publishing expectations, while group leads maintain their own event entries. This creates consistency without bottlenecking every update through a single person.
Next, align event formatting. Require every event to include date, start time, location, and a plain-language action note. Families should not need to decode abbreviations or cross-reference another document just to understand what happens and where.
Then establish weekly maintenance rhythm. A short Monday review catches stale items, confirms venue changes, and surfaces conflicts before they trigger avoidable parent confusion. This habit is small, but it compounds over a full school year.
Finally, train communication channels to point back to the calendar URL. Newsletters and social posts should reference the same destination so families develop one consistent behavior: check the school calendar first.
In the first 30 days, focus on consistency over complexity. Publish all major School dates in a single pass, then ask each group lead to add only their highest-priority events. This prevents overload while giving families enough immediate value to change behavior and start checking the calendar regularly.
During days 30 to 60, tighten quality controls. Review recurring event titles, remove duplicate entries, and confirm each item has clear location details. If parents cannot act from the first screen, they usually return to old communication habits. Precise formatting makes your calendar practical, not just complete.
During days 60 to 90, reinforce distribution. Every newsletter, social recap, and principal note should point back to the same calendar URL. This repetition is deliberate. Adoption improves when families see one predictable destination across every school channel.
After 90 days, measure success by reduced duplicate questions and fewer missed event surprises. The goal is not simply to publish more events. The goal is to create a dependable weekly routine where parents trust they can find the current answer quickly.
Mature schools separate planning from publishing. Planning can happen in committee docs, but the public-facing calendar remains the single confirmed schedule for families. This distinction avoids accidental publication of draft information and keeps parent trust high.
Leaders also use conflict checks before major seasons. Reviewing sports, arts, testing, and fundraising windows together helps prevent avoidable overlaps that reduce turnout and create volunteer strain across groups.
When rain or a late bus changes the plan, edit the event itself instead of posting a second one, and pin an announcement so it sits at the top of the page. Cards do not show when they were posted, so delete the old note; a stale instruction next to the new one is what sends a parent to the wrong door at pickup.
The school calendar lives at the address families already bookmark, and each group's calendar sits on that group's own page. When a game moves from Tuesday to Thursday, the lead edits one entry and the page shows it within a few minutes; subscribed calendars catch up the next time they check. Nobody re-sends a corrected flyer, and no parent shows up Tuesday because they checked the old one.
Planning your first big event? Download our School Event Planning Checklist.
Share school events in one place every family trusts. Parents subscribe once from Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook. No app required.
SchoolRelay includes a free shared event calendar for PTOs, PTAs, and school parent groups. Officers create events once from any device; families see the full school calendar on the public hub page without logging in, downloading an app, or joining a group. Each event supports a title, date, time, location, description, and an optional volunteer signup sheet. An event can also carry an end date, so a three day book fair shows as one entry covering the whole run. Any published event can be turned into a Post or Story share graphic with the school's logo, the event's date, time and location, and a QR code. The QR code and the event's link open the school page with that event's details already showing, and the link pasted into WhatsApp, iMessage, or Facebook previews the event's name, date, and place. A Subscribe button on the calendar adds the whole school calendar to Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook, or copies the feed link for any other calendar app. New and changed events reach a subscribed calendar the next time that app refreshes, which for Google Calendar can take a few hours. Events saved without a time appear as all day events, and past events drop off the feed after their day. Each group page has its own feed with just that group's events. Each event also has its own Add to Google Calendar button. The calendar is embedded in the same public hub page where families already find announcements, links, and volunteer signups. The free Community plan supports up to 10 events. The Pro plan at $99 per year adds unlimited events and weekly digest emails that summarize upcoming events automatically. SchoolRelay does not require families to create an account to view the calendar.
